VA - Grateful Dead Fan - Unidentified male, 26 June 1995 - #2

[CallMeTres]

I have another question as well. I read on the Doe Network that Jason Doe had had no dental restoration work and that his third molars had fully erupted. Posts on here state that he had perfect teeth.


Since "no dental restoration work" does not necessarily mean "perfect teeth," where did the perfect teeth comment originate? Was it from someone who talked to law enforcement or the ME?

 

[cvillemegan]

The original sketch was a good faith effort, but seems to have been not very good in terms of specific facial recognition, it is entirely possible that locals didn't see the reports or if they did, didn't recognize him - particularly since he was initially reported to be a red head. If he had recently graduated from high school, people might not have even noticed that he was gone.

The Richmond, Norfolk/Va Beach, Suffolk, and Roanoke papers were dailies back then and any of the four might have been the paper of choice for locals. The county and small city papers were usually 1x or 3x a week. I'm not sure if this would have initially made the big city papers.

I too am a little disappointed and surprised by the lack of coverage and the two sketches that don't resemble each other very much. I think people who knew him, especially if he'd only recently grown his hair long and dyed it, could have looked right at the first sketch and not known it was him.

I think you could be onto something with your Lawrenceville theory, but I don't know how to get the yearbooks. What if we found Facebook pages for high schools in the area and started posting his photo and info on them?

 

[CallMeTres]

I sent a message to the admins of the Lawrenceville, VA town facebook page.

I still work in the Roanoke/Lynchburg/Collinsville triangle five or six days a month (my territory ends at Martinsville). The next time I have an afternoon of appointments fail on me, I'll shoot down to Brunswick county and see if I can look at yearbooks at the library or highschool. There may be more highschools in the county now, but I'm pretty sure it was the only one at the time.

 

[rainwater]

The best bet for high school yearbooks is to contact the high school librarian or the public library, to see if they have the yearbooks,especially in small towns. Also the historical society if they have one. I can call to see where yearbooks might be located- it could save you a trip to a particular building, if it's OK. The high school may not resume classes until Jan 6th, though. I can try the public library and historical society tomorrow Dec 26th.

Also, does anyone have any contacts at Rolling Stone magazine? I'm thinking maybe they would like to do an article on Jason, because of the whole Grateful Dead summer of hell tour connection/music related story.

 

[CallMeTres]

I won't be going back to work until the week of Jan 6, and I'm pretty sure I'm in WV that week. I have to kind of wait until I happen to have an afternoon in the right area of VA bail on me before I head down that way, anyway.

We set up our appointments weeks in advance, but sometimes the stars align and a large customer or a bunch of small customers cancel at the last minute so I end up with an afternoon free. It could take a few months for that to happen, especially since Mid-Jan - April 1 are the busiest weeks of the year for us.

I'll make sure I know where the yearbooks are before heading down there There is a very small college in town, too; I think that 100% of the students were African-American back in the 80s-90s, but I'll stop in there as well if I have time. I could be incorrect about the racial make-up of the students - it has been a long time since I had business with them and I might be remembering incorrectly.

 

[Roselvr]

Hello. I spent most of my adult life in Richmond, VA before moving to WV (one year detour to Charlotte, NC in 1998).

I'll ask my question first and then explain why I'm asking:

Has anyone been able to obtain and review high school yearbooks for 93, 94, 95 for Lawrenceville (Virginia) HS? I tried looking on Classmates.com, but the "newest" yearbook they have is from the 70s.

I have an unusual job and travel extensively by car, averaging 40k to 50k per year. From June of 87 until November of 97, Emporia was part of my territory.

I had not heard about Jason Doe until a year or so ago, which greatly surprises me. Richmond is right between NoVA and Emporia, and I was in and out of Emporia, South Hill, South Boston, Halifax, Lawrenceville, etc all the time. I was in Gloucester quite a bit, too.


Lots of people have asked "Why would the driver go 95 to 58 to 85? Why not go straight over to 85?"

One reason would be if he needed to drop Jason off somewhere between 95 and 85 on route 58. The next county over from the accident is Brunswick. As far as I know, there was only one public high school in Brunswick county at the time. Brunswick HS in Lawrenceville (or maybe just outside of Lawrenceville).

I *think* that Brunswick runs right up to 85 on 58... although a wee bit of Mecklenburg might sneak in the last few miles.


The original sketch was a good faith effort, but seems to have been not very good in terms of specific facial recognition, it is entirely possible that locals didn't see the reports or if they did, didn't recognize him - particularly since he was initially reported to be a red head. If he had recently graduated from high school, people might not have even noticed that he was gone.

The Richmond, Norfolk/Va Beach, Suffolk, and Roanoke papers were dailies back then and any of the four might have been the paper of choice for locals. The county and small city papers were usually 1x or 3x a week. I'm not sure if this would have initially made the big city papers.

I asked CarlK - Ancestry.com has some yearbooks, but not as many as in Classmates.

And Ancestry doesn't have any Lawrenceville HS yearbooks at all.

 

[rainwater]

I made a few calls the morning of December 26th- this is what I learned.

In the early 1990's there were( and still are) only two high schools in the county-Brunswick H.S. was and is the public high school and was formerly known as Brunswick Senior High School.
The other high school is a private school known as Brunswick Academy that has "been in the county for years."
The public library does not have a reference department or reference librarian as such. If you call, ask for "Becky"- she was extremely helpful and gave me the info I am posting. The public library has a selection of very old high school yearbooks- the most recent years they have are the 1950's and 1960's , but they would LOVE to acquire old yearbooks from the 70's-current year for the high school. The public library has a website-their phone number is 434-848-2418.

The school district, including the main offices, will not reopen until January 6th. Becky did not know exactly what yearbooks the high school carries. According to the BHS website, the librarian's name is Ms. Richardson and the phone number for the school is 434-848-2716. Brunswick Academy will probably have to wait until Jan 6th as well.

The phone at the historical society goes to voicemail and there is a message saying"Noone is currently available to take your call". I will try again tomorrow and will leave a voicemail if I get the same recording.

 

[rainwater]

A family member of Shawn Hale's contacted me a week or so ago. Shawn was definitely a GD fan.

 

[DrDMike]

A family member of Shawn Hale's contacted me a week or so ago. Shawn was definitely a GD fan.

Shawn was 6 foot and Jason was 5'8.

 

[CallMeTres]

Thanks, Rain. I will call the school librarian myself when I have an idea of when I will be in the area. Unless your plan is to ask to have copies of the yearbooks sent to you, I would prefer to make contact myself and would prefer that the first contact be in person.

I'm happy that my memory of only one public highschool in the county was correct As I've gotten older, small details like that have started slipping from my grasp.

 

[iamnotagolem]

This is just a random thought, I check in on this case from time to time and I've often wondered if the age range is off.

Is there any scientific method to determining age after death aside from dentals (typically for children)?

The reason I think his age might be off is many people look significantly older or younger than they are, I had a friend growing up who was a year older than me, but by the time he was 18 most people thought he was in his 40s. The way he looked, spoke, carried himself, etc. But he hasn't changed much in looks in the last 15 years and so it looks like he hasn't aged much at all.

My husband on the other hand is in his mid 40s and most people think he's in his 20s. We got carded a couple of weeks ago and the waitress was shocked/embarrassed that she was off by so far.

It makes me wonder if Jason Doe's age could be off by a bit, if the circumstances and his traveling partner's age were taken into consideration when determining his age, it could influence their opinion by 10 or more years.

 

[CallMeTres]

Hi Iamnotagolem,

I love your nic and I, for one, am very happy to hear that you are not a golem.

Suture lines in the skull, wear patterns in the mandibular process, and growth plates in the wrists can all be used to help identify an age range for someone. From what I understand it is no where near an exact science.

I wonder if he had a smallpox vaccine scar?

 

[pepagirl]

I live in Virginia Beach and head through Emporia / Brunswick County every now again when I'm on my way south, I'd be willing to do some research at some point if anyone that has been following the thread could give me a "honey-do" list.

 

[CallMeTres]

Hi Pepa,

When I reluctantly open my work computer on Monday I will know my schedule for the next six weeks. I can coordinate with you so that we can see which of us can likely go to Lawrenceville HS first.

I grew up in Va Beach, too. I graduated from Kempsville HS. When we moved to the area in the early 70s, most all of Princess Anne going down to Sandbridge was still farms!

 

[CallMeTres]

I've been in touch with a UK missing person site over the last two weeks. They have agreed to pass on Jason Doe to the investigators in charge of Lee Buckle's case. Yes, Lee is "too tall." However, we don't know how tall Jason really was as his height has changed and grown over the years (I've seen reports from 5'6 to 5'10) and Lee's stats about his height could be misreported.

https://www.missingpeople.org.uk/leebuckle

 

[pepagirl]

Hi Pepa,

When I reluctantly open my work computer on Monday I will know my schedule for the next six weeks. I can coordinate with you so that we can see which of us can likely go to Lawrenceville HS first.

I grew up in Va Beach, too. I graduated from Kempsville HS. When we moved to the area in the early 70s, most all of Princess Anne going down to Sandbridge was still farms!

Sounds good to me, I'll check back tomorrow evening and see how things look. I don't have any current plans to head down that way, but my family lives in SC and I might be making a trip that way within the next 6 to 12 weeks.

 

[missy_g]

I just tried to post message with a link but it disappeared. It says on Jason Doe's Doe Network page that all third molars were "completely" erupted. Personally I don't know anyone under 25 with all molars COMPLETELY erupted.



So maybe both his age and hair color is off and that isn't really helping..

All my wisdom teeth came through and I was well under 25. I had them until about a year ago when they cracked and I had to have them pulled.


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[indicajane]

Yes, I have an nineteen year old, three out of her four wisdom teeth are in.


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[CallMeTres]

I *might* be able to swing through on Wednesday.

 

[CallMeTres]

The customer I thought was going to bail on me for tomorrow didn't, so I won't be able to go. Next possible date is Friday, Feb 7. That day I might be able to go to Emporia, Lawrenceville, and Richmond.

Let's make a list of the places we want to go.

1) Brunswick HS

Where else? I'll ask over on the Grateful Doe FB page, too.