Doe Network

172UMCA - Unidentified Male

Reconstruction Reconstruction Reconstruction Reconstruction

Date of Discovery: October 17, 1997
Location of Discovery: Mt. Veeder, Napa County, California
Estimated Date of Death: Late 1980 to 1982
State of Remains: Partial skeletal
Cause of Death: Suicide or homicide by gunshot

Physical Description

Estimated Age: 26-32 years old
Race: White
Gender: Male
Height: 5'6" to 5'11"
Weight: Unknown. Thin to medium build.
Hair Color: Possibly brown. Strands found at the scene.
Eye Color: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: An anthropologist speculated he may have ridden horses during life, as a build-up of calcium on one bone indicated.

Identifiers

Dentals: Available. Expensive gold fillings in six of his teeth (possibly more, but the mandible was not recovered). The dental work indicates he may have been affluent or in the military.
Fingerprints: Not available
DNA: Available

Clothing & Personal Items

Clothing: Levi jeans with burgundy pockets, multi-colored vest, blue sweatshirt, navy blue Ralph Lauren Polo pull-over shirt (size-medium), New Balance running shoes (size 11), fibers that are consistent (with the likelihood) that he was wearing a burgundy polyester vest and aviator style gold rim sunglasses.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: A handmade heavy leather backpack, unknown manufacturer, filled with personal items, which was in pretty good shape considering the time lapse and the weather. The other personal items were untraceable. Budweiser beer cans - The particular brand of Bud didn’t come out on the grocery shelves until after 1980. A Ruger Bearcat .22 cal. revolver, that was traced to the Phoenix, Arizona area. It was rusted shut and the serial number was unclear.

Circumstances of Discovery

In 1997, landowners surveying their property lines on Mount Veeder discovered the victim's partial skeletal in a remote area. The skull, a foot still inside a weatherbeaten sock, and several other bones and fragments were found.

The bullet hole in the right temple of the skull was made by a .22-caliber Ruger handgun. Authorities are not sure if it was self-inflicted or homicide. He most likely was not a transient.

Law enforcement nicknamed the man "The Mt. Veeder Man."

Investigating Agency(s)

Agency Name: Napa County Coroner's Office
Agency Contact Person: Deputy Coroner Investigator Jesse Ward or Deputy Dan Fiske
Agency Phone Number: 707-253-4256
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: C97-612

NCIC Case Number: U069437669
NamUs Case Number: 8634

Information Source(s)

NamUs
Napa Valley Register Archive (11/18/07)
Napa County

Admin Notes

Added: 12/20/2005; Last Updated: 9/28/2016

Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team

** Listed information may be estimated.

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