WY WY - Teton County, WhtMale Adult-Pre 60, UP67178, clothes, IV bag/tubing, likely suicide, May'98

[Tuck]

A recent addition to NamUs:

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

 

[Tuck]

General Information

Date of Discovery - 05/12/1998

Location of Discovery – Cache Creek, Teton County, Wyoming

Estimated Date of Death – 1990 - 1995

State of Remains - Not recognizable - Near complete or complete skeleton

Cause of Death - Unknown

Physical Description

Estimated Age – 42 - 62

Race - White / Caucasian

Gender - Male

Height - 5'7 - 5’10

Weight – 140 – 170

Hair Color - Unknown

Eye Color - Unknown or Missing

Distinguishing Marks / Features – Silver fillings present in some teeth. The victim probably had a slight to medium build.

Clothing and Accessories

Clothing - A size medium blue T-shirt, jeans, a torn, old Navy-style pea coat and a pair of navy-blue Velcro sneakers.

Jewelry - Unknown

Additional Personal Items – At the first site, searchers located a tent pole, a garment bag, a piece of terry cloth and plastic wrap.

At the second site, searchers located a penny from 1990, a comb, eight vials containing a cloudy brown unidentified liquid, needles, a backpack and a valve for injecting intravenous fluid.

Circumstances of Discovery

A hiker looking for wildflowers with his dog located the upper part of the skull in the Cache Creek area of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. About half a kilometre west of the initial site, searchers later found the lower jaw of the skull and additional other skeletal remains.

The decedent was located next to a tree, over which a bottle connected to a length of rubber tubing had been placed to erect a possible intravenous drip. Authorities suspect that the man had either committed suicide or accidentally suffered a drug overdose. The contents of the vials located at the site were analysed, but the substance within could not be identified, although it did lead investigators to believe that the decedent had some sort of medical or veterinary knowledge.

A caller to police later stated that several years prior to the discovery of the remains, he had located a suicide note in the Cache Creek trail parking lot, but that the writing and signature had been barely legible. The caller had since moved away from Teton County, and had lost the note in the process. Police also considered a possible link to a man who stated that he had murdered someone in nearby Jackson Hole in 1992 or 1993, but were never able to determine the veracity of the report.

Despite the creation of clay reconstructions, the man has never been identified. Authorities believe the man was likely a transient, and may not have been from the area.

 

[Tuck]

Reconstructions

 

[YaYa_521]

General Information

Date of Discovery - 05/12/1998

Location of Discovery – Cache Creek, Teton County, Wyoming

Estimated Date of Death – 1990 - 1995

State of Remains - Not recognizable - Near complete or complete skeleton

Cause of Death - Unknown

Physical Description

Estimated Age – 42 - 62

Race - White / Caucasian

Gender - Male

Height - 5'7 - 5’10

Weight – 140 – 170

Hair Color - Unknown

Eye Color - Unknown or Missing

Distinguishing Marks / Features – Silver fillings present in some teeth. The victim probably had a slight to medium build.

Clothing and Accessories

Clothing - A size medium blue T-shirt, jeans, a torn, old Navy-style pea coat and a pair of navy-blue Velcro sneakers.

Jewelry - Unknown

Additional Personal Items – At the first site, searchers located a tent pole, a garment bag, a piece of terry cloth and plastic wrap.

At the second site, searchers located a penny from 1990, a comb, eight vials containing a cloudy brown unidentified liquid, needles, a backpack and a valve for injecting intravenous fluid.

Circumstances of Discovery

A hiker looking for wildflowers with his dog located the upper part of the skull in the Cache Creek area of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. About half a kilometre west of the initial site, searchers later found the lower jaw of the skull and additional other skeletal remains.

The decedent was located next to a tree, over which a bottle connected to a length of rubber tubing had been placed to erect a possible intravenous drip. Authorities suspect that the man had either committed suicide or accidentally suffered a drug overdose. The contents of the vials located at the site were analysed, but the substance within could not be identified, although it did lead investigators to believe that the decedent had some sort of medical or veterinary knowledge.

A caller to police later stated that several years prior to the discovery of the remains, he had located a suicide note in the Cache Creek trail parking lot, but that the writing and signature had been barely legible. The caller had since moved away from Teton County, and had lost the note in the process. Police also considered a possible link to a man who stated that he had murdered someone in nearby Jackson Hole in 1992 or 1993, but were never able to determine the veracity of the report.

Despite the creation of clay reconstructions, the man has never been identified. Authorities believe the man was likely a transient, and may not have been from the area.

Thank you for posting this case. I can't seem to find the link to this profile. Is this the Doe Network profile? The NamUs profile linked above isn't quite as detailed. Tia

 

[YaYa_521]

Potential match for the NamUs profile linked above.

WY - WY-David Milton Crouch, 27, Bridger-Teton National Forest, 31 Aug 1997

 

[Goecke]

Thank you for posting this case. I can't seem to find the link to this profile. Is this the Doe Network profile? The NamUs profile linked above isn't quite as detailed. Tia

I looked on the Doe Network and couldn't find him.

 

[Tuck]

That’s not taken from the Doe Network. I just really like their format and used it to put all my own information together. Sorry for the confusion

 

[YaYa_521]

That’s not taken from the Doe Network. I just really like their format and used it to put all my own information together. Sorry for the confusion

Ok...but where'd you get all this awesome info? Were there any photos or links to other resources or news articles? It's an interesting case.

 

[Tuck]

Ok...but where'd you get all this awesome info? Were there any photos or links to other resources or news articles? It's an interesting case.

Sorry, I totally forgot to source it! This is taken from the Jackson Hole News archive. There’s an absolute stack of information on this case which I’ve tried to cram into a very short report.

Something which I’ve been doing for a while now is providing more information for the NamUs missing and unidentified cases which are sparse on details. There’s so much information which often isn’t included in the NamUs reports, so I’ve found newspaper archives to be an incredibly valuable resource.

 

[Goecke]

Sorry, I totally forgot to source it! This is taken from the Jackson Hole News archive. There’s an absolute stack of information on this case which I’ve tried to cram into a very short report.

Something which I’ve been doing for a while now is providing more information for the NamUs missing and unidentified cases which are sparse on details. There’s so much information which often isn’t included in the NamUs reports, so I’ve found newspaper archives to be an incredibly valuable resource.

Do you mind linking some of the info? I'd love to add him to the Unidentified Wiki but I need definitive sources in order to do so!

 

[WyomingSkyAngel]

Very interesting case.

 

[Murkywaters]

Recent article on Cache Creek John Doe with additional information and lots of pictures.

Detectives reopen 22-year-old cold case of Cache Creek skeleton

“It was a headless body,” Benefiel recalled. “There was a needle still where his arm was, and there were tubes and vials and a sneaker with a foot in it.

Above the skeletal remains they found a bottle hanging from a tree with rubber tubing like an IV drip that had been set up.

“We couldn’t believe what we were seeing,” Benefiel said. “There were bones and threads of clothes and IV tubes.”

The IV tubing led Moss to believe the man took his own life.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The University of North Texas Center for Human Identification provides analysis for human remains through DNA samples from unidentified remains and samples submitted by family members of missing people.

The center is capable of mitochondrial DNA evaluation and is the largest contributor to the Combined DNA Index System, also known as CODIS, a database for unidentified missing person cases, according to its website.

It also manages the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Platt isn’t sure if they’ll get a hit on the Cache Creek man’s bone.

“It’s worth a try,” he said. “It’s just one more step in a case with no leads.”

It’s one of only a few cases that those involved still tend to think about from time to time.

Fiske, Benefiel and Moss all still wonder who he was, what his story was, what brought the man to Jackson and if there’s anyone out there who loved him. The DNA test could be a shot in the dark but the point is to get the man to his proper resting place, wherever that may be.

“There is someone, somewhere, looking for this person perhaps,” Moss said.
Teton County detectives reopen 22-year-old cold case of Cache Creek skeleton

 

[YaYa_521]

Teton County detectives reopen 22-year-old cold case of Cache Creek skeleton

• Threads from the man’s clothing
• pieces of an old intravenous bag
• a needle still where his arm was, and there were tubes and vials and a sneaker with a foot in it
• believe the man took his own life
• probably a drug overdose
• nothing to indicate the man was murdered
• liquid found in the tubes was too degraded to test
• full skeleton, including the man’s teeth, which still had some enamel on them
• likely belonged to a middle-aged man
• most likely in his 20s or 30s

Can someone please find this article and the pic of the facial reconstruction?

• "The profile ran on the front page of the April 14, 2000, Jackson Hole Daily with an accompanying headline, “Cache Creek mystery skull finally gets a face.”
• the clay head looked strange. It had a long flat nose and pursed lips.

 

[Tuck]

Reconstructions

Pretty sure these are the reconstructions that the article refers to?

 

[YaYa_521]

Wyoming investigators reopen case of skeleton found in 1998
August 16, 2020
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — Wearing black gloves, Sgt. Clay Platt opens a box full of bones that’s been sitting in the Teton County Sheriff’s Office evidence room for more than two decades.

Snip

Exploring new options

At the sheriff’s office last week, Platt looked through the last box of evidence, which holds the Polaroids of the scene and some IV paraphernalia.

He wonders if anyone is still looking for the man.

Snip

It’s one of only a few cases that those involved still tend to think about from time to time.

Fiske, Benefiel and Moss all still wonder who he was, what his story was, what brought the man to Jackson and if there’s anyone out there who loved him. The DNA test could be a shot in the dark but the point is to get the man to his proper resting place, wherever that may be.

“There is someone, somewhere, looking for this person perhaps,” Moss said.

If you think you have a hunch in the Cache Creek cold case you’re encouraged to call the Teton County Sheriff’s Office at 733-4052.

 

[MadMcGoo]

This is an intriguing case! Seems like it could still be solvable.

 

[meanmaryjean]

I'm guessing by 'transient' they mean 'not from around here' and not homeless. Because I cannot envision a homeless person having the wherewithal to set up an IV drip hanging from a tree, start their own IV to end their life.
Not that it matters, but I am way curious about the contents of the bottles.

 

[MadMcGoo]

Is anyone able to compare the skull from above to Donald’s photos? Facially they look quite similar to me.

http://charleyproject.org/case/donald-stanton-beckstead

 

[Melt71]

@MadMcGoo I think these look like matching stats. In the absence of an easy to find email address for Teton Sheriff's Office I emailed back to the address listed on the article posted above Detectives reopen 22-year-old cold case of Cache Creek skeleton and let them know about this thread. There are zero ruleouts listed in Namus against the deceased man's file; however Mr Beckstead doesn't seem to be in Namus and so may not be entered into the national databases that allow deceased men to be compared to him.