Norwalk police reopen 1996 'John Doe' cold case

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NORWALK — Nearly 20 years ago, two campers made a grisly discovery on Shea Island — the body of a badly decomposed male had washed up on shore.

In the hopes of shining light on that cold case, Norwalk Police Department Lt. Weisgerber, has released details of the case on the NPD Facebook page.

On Thursday, April 18, 1996 at 7:25 p.m., the Norwalk Police Dispatch Center received a call from a cellular caller reporting that a deceased person had been discovered on the north shore of Shea Island.

The husband and wife had been camping out on Shea Island when they made the discovery. The Norwalk Police Marine Unit ferried Detectives to the island so they could investigate further.

The remains were badly decomposed and partially skeletonized with no clothing attached. No facial identification was possible. The body was removed from Shea Island and transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy.

The John Doe was identified as an adult, white male, 5’ 1” tall, between the age of 20-30 years old. No dental charting could be completed since several front teeth were missing postmortem.

Currently, evidence that had been collected at autopsy is about to be examined by the DNA Section of the State of Connecticut Forensic Laboratory in an effort to develop a DNA profile from hairs or bone as necessary. If that proves successful, the profile will then be uploaded into CODIS and NDIS in an effort to make a match with a reported missing person in which family members submitted DNA samples for comparison.

“It is critical that family members of missing persons confirm with the police department handling the case that DNA samples are collected from as many family members as possible,” Weisgerber said.

In an attempt to make an identification through fingerprints, nine of the fingers were removed at the middle knuckle and placed in separate jars. Some jars had glycerol added in an effort to soften the tissue for print rolling. Only two of the nine fingers exhibited enough ridge detail for identification. These two prints had been rolled and photographed. The two prints were sent to the Latent Print Section of the State of Connecticut Forensic Laboratory in April of 1996 and searched through the AFIS system with no identification. The prints were also sent to the FBI Latent Print Section and to the Rockland County Sheriff’s Office in New York in 1996 for searches through their AFIS systems with no identifications.

In September 2014, a request was made to the FBI to have the prints searched through the new NGI database and again no identification was made.

Anybody with information is asked to contact Lt. Art Weisgerber at (203) 854-3028 or aweisgerber@norwalkct.org.

Anonymous Internet tips can be sent through the Norwalk police website at: www.norwalkpd.com.

Anonymous text tips can be submitted by typing “NPD” into the text field, followed by the message and sending it to CRIMES (274637).