Reconstruction of Victim
Reconstruction of Victim
Date of Discovery: February 14, 1975
Location of Discovery: Belle Chasse, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana
Estimated Date of Death: Recent
State of Remains: Recognizable face
Cause of Death: Suicide by hanging
Estimated Age: 16-18 years old
Race: White
Gender: Male
Height: 5'10"-6'0" Estimated
Weight: 150-160 lbs, Estimated
Hair Color: Brown, short
Eye Color: Brown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Slightly protruding front teeth
Dentals: Not available
Fingerprints: Not available
DNA: Not available
Clothing: Maroon & yellow long-sleeved Puritan knit shirt; blue Arrow pants with a brown belt; one grey & one dark blue socks; no shoes
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
A couple driving through the woods on a farm road between Highway 23 and the Mississippi River, found the body of the decedent hanging from a limb of a persimmon tree, a bedsheet tied around his neck.
Against the tree was a jar full of note paper. Inside was a suicide note addressed to his parents:
"Mom and Dad,
You have provided be excellent advantages and privileges and experiences. I am extremely grateful for all of your sacrifices, time and support. I am now repaying you with an arrogant act. In this light, I do see it as criminal. I can only hope that you see that it was me who caused it.
I never did develop into a real person and I cannot tolerate the false and empty existence I have created.
It is best if I cease to live, quietly, than risk that later I will break and shatter by violence or linger years under care. I implore you to see a psychiatrist in order that you might understand my death and my life. Ask thoroughly about what I was and you will see that it is not tragic that I am gone but more natural than if I continued.
I was born with a definite pervasive melancholy. What frustrated me most in the last year was that I had built no ties to family or friends. There was nothing of lasting worth and value. I led a detached existence and I was a parody of a person-literally and figuratively. I didn't tell jokes-I was a joke.
I am a bomb of frustration and should never marry or have children. It is safest to defuse the bomb harmlessly now. I do not want to bother with being a "reformed and cured" person limping through life. I am this self-centered.
I am no longer interested in the world and know that it is not interested in me. When you stop growing you are dead. I stopped growing long ago."
The decedent cited the writing of Emile Durkheim, a philosopher and psychologist. He also added this aside to authorities:
You are bound to preserve domestic peace and order. If you pursue who I was (and spend hundreds of dollars) you will accomplish little. There are no legal consequences of my death or any kind of entanglements. All that can happen is that you will shatter the domestic peace and order of two innocent lives. Do not deprive them of the hope that their "missing" son will return. Let me be, let it be as if I wasn't ever here. Simply cremate me as John Doe."
There are no surviving reports/records from either the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office or Coroner's Office. At the time of discovery, the decedent's fingerprints had been circulated to police across the country.
Agency Name: LSU FACES Laboratory
Agency Contact Person: Unknown
Agency Phone Number: 225-578-4761
Agency E-Mail:faces@lsu.edu
Agency Case Number: LSU 22-05 / 117-15-979
Agency Name: Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office
Agency Contact Person: Unknown
Agency Phone Number: 504-564-2525
Agency E-Mail: Unknown
Agency Case Number:Unknown
NCIC Case Number: Unknown
NamUs Case Number: UP88342
NamUs
LSU FACES Lab
The Memphis Press-Scimitar - Mar. 26, 1975
Added: 06/24/2022; Last Updated: 7/2/22
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information may be estimated.
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