In this age of modern technology, we are often surprised when we are unable to solve a mystery, especially a seemingly simple one such as a person's identity. Yet, many people in Alabama, who died in accidents or from foul play, remain unidentified in 2016. Some identities have been mysteries for many decades, while others are more recent discoveries. Still, the question remains: Who are they? Can you help restore their identities?

1. Five who died on a riverboat, unknown date, Rogersville

This mystery has more questions than any other listed here. According the late Willane Belew Abernathy in her "History of Elgin Crossroads and Nearbys," five unidentified bodies are buried in Belew Cemetery in Rogersville. Abernathy's grandfather, a carpenter named John Harrison Belew, donated the land for the cemetery in 1908 and was known to make caskets for those interred there, according to Lee Freeman at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library.

Abernathy wrote: "Later, there were five people who died on the riverboat coming down the (Tennessee) river. He (Belew) gave them each a burial plot. We do not know their names, but there was a little redheaded child and her father." Today, two of those five graves are marked. The stones are inscribed:

"Young Red Haired Girl Died on Riverboat."

"Old Man Died on Riverboat."

Click here to see the FindaGrave.com entry.

There are no dates on the stones or in Abernathy's book. When did they die? And more puzzling, did they die of an illness on the boat - perhaps during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 - or was there an accident? Which riverboat? Were all the victims related and why couldn't they be identified at the time? Where are the other three buried and were their graves once marked?

Anyone with information can contact Kelly Kazek at kkazek@al.com or Lee Freeman at Florence-Lauderdale Public Library at 256-764-6564.

2. Jackson County John Doe, 1981, accident victim, Scottsboro

A man who was struck by a car and killed in Scottsboro, Ala., has not been identified since the incident in 1981. He was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery beneath a marker that reads "Unknown White Male," and may have rested peacefully if not for a photo in a local newspaper. In August 2014, the newspaper ran a morgue photo of the John Doe, hoping for new leads. A local man saw the photo and thought the man looked like William Bradford Bishop Jr., who is on the FBI's Most Wanted list for the murders of his wife, children and mother in 1976. Authorities exhumed the John Doe in October 2014 but the DNA was not a match for Bishop's. The body was re-interred. Click here to see his FindaGrave.com entry.

He was described as: "approximately 55 years old, with blue eyes, brown/grey hair" and about 5 feet- 9 inches tall and 155 pounds. Anyone with information on the John Doe should call the Scottsboro Police Department at 256-574-4468.

3. Mollie and Pap Doe, 2004, funeral home mummies, Ensley

In 2004, a year after it closed, Shortridge Funeral Home in Ensley caught fire. When a passerby spotted two bodies in the ashes, authorities came to see if foul play was involved, only to learn the bodies were mummified - the unclaimed remains that had been stored in the funeral home for decades. Vivi Abrams wrote for The Birmingham News: "Residents in the Ensley area of west Birmingham said Pap and Molly [sic] were understood to be a husband and wife who supposedly stabbed each other to death during a drunken fight in the 1930s. No one ever claimed their bodies, and they remained at the funeral home ..."

The funeral home owner at the time, W.E. Shortridge, who was active in Birmingham's Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and '60s, told some community members the corpses were preserved in case someone showed up to bury them. According to the Abrams article, resident Jane Norman, who was born in the early 1940s, recalled the male mummy had a mustache and a cloth around his hips and a little bit of hair. Norman said she also heard the couple's names were Richard Cloud and Molly Fleming but this has never been proven.

The remains were buried together in one coffin in Lakeview Cemetery in Edgewater. The Jefferson County Coroner's office retained some genetic samples for possible identification in the future. Contact the Coroner's Office with information by calling 205-930-3603.

4. Lee County Jane Doe, 2012, presumed murder victim, Opelika

On Jan. 28, 2012, the partial skeletal remains of a little girl were found in the woods behind a mobile home park in Opelika, according to Police Capt. Shane Healey. The child, of African heritage, likely died between 2011 and 2012. Authorities determined Opelika Jane was between 4 and 7 years old. She was likely "abused and malnourished" before her death leading authorities to believe she was murdered. Her height, weight and eye color could not be determined from the remains but the FBI Victims Identification Project created a facial reconstruction that shows what she may have looked like. She has not been buried, Healey said. "Her remains are still being analyzed by forensic scientists for clues," he said.

Click here to see her full profile at MissingKids.org.

Anyone with information should call Healey at Opelika Police Department at 334-705-5200 or the FBI Mobile Field Office at 251-438-3674.

5. The "First" Children, no dates, north Alabama

Although graves of babies with no names are fairly common - either because they died before names were bestowed or because of the expense of carving memorials - it is more unusual to find memorials to older children who could not be identified. Even more unusual was a finding that three northern Alabama cemeteries have legends about unidentified children who were the first to be interred in them. And their stories are nearly identical.

The

Girl in the Rock Grave, interred in Liberty Hill Cemetery in Flat Rock in Jackson County. The story surrounding a pile of rocks says they mark the grave of the first person buried there. Thelma Marshall wrote on

Yacco Indian Baby, interred in Tate's Chapel Cemetery in Centre in Cherokee County. According to Dennis Ison on

Anyone with information on these children can email kkazek@al.com.

6. Etowah County John Doe, 1998, murder victim, Gadsden

The skeletal remains of a young black male were discovered by men fishing in the Coosa River on May 29, 1998, according to Toni Driskill with the Gadsden Police Crime Scene Unit. Authorities found multiple bullet wounds to the head and stab wounds to the base of his spine and right hip. His age is estimated between 17 and 21 and he was about 5 feet, 8 inches tall. Scientists created a facial reconstruction but had to approximate his jaw because the mandible was never found. Other limbs were also missing.

Click here to read the full profile on DoeNetwork.com.

His remains are stored at the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee, Driskill said. If you have information, contact Driskill at the Gadsden Police Department at 256-549-4500 or the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee at 865-974-4408.

7. Tuscaloosa County Jane Doe, 1982, murder victim, Romulus

On April 18, 1982, the body of a white female was discovered in Slaughter Creek near the Sipsey River in Romulus. Her age is estimated between 34 and 38. According to Sgt. Jeremy Franks with the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office, authorities exhumed the remains in 2013 for DNA testing that was unavailable in 1982. The victim had been beaten and strangled to death. She was about 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighed about 110 pounds. She had dark-brown hair, brown eyes and a scar under her right eyebrow.

Click here to read her full profile on DoeNetwork.com.

Her remains are interred in Sunset Memorial Park in Northport. Anyone with information should contact Sgt. Franks at 205-752-0616 or the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences at 205-344-5420.