The Internet Is Trying to Solve a 20-Year-Old “Grateful Doe” Cold Case

Buzzfeed is reporting that efforts are currently underway to identify a young man that was killed in a car accident the day after the Grateful Dead’s June 25, 1995 concert at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC.

For almost two decades, the remains of the young man, who has become known as “Grateful Doe,” have gone unidentified. He had no ID on him at the time, and the family and girlfriend of the car’s driver, who was also killed in the accident, had no idea who the man was.

According to Buzzfeed, internet sleuths on Phantasy Tour, imgur, reddit, Facebook, websleuths and other sites are now trying to unravel the mystery. Old photos of a young man who looks similar to composite sketches that were released at the time of the accident have been posted online, and people claiming to have been short-term roommates of the man in the photos say that they knew him as Jay or Jason (a letter addressed to Jason was also found at the crash site), but are unaware of his last name. While no one is sure if the man in the photos is the one who died in the accident, some believe he may be given the Grateful Dead connection, his resemblance to the sketches and the fact that they last saw him before June 1995. They say that the man in the photographs may have had ties to Myrtle Beach, SC, and may have lived in Illinois at one point.

If you know this person, but have not seen him since June 1995 or earlier, please have his family contact the Case Manager, David Baldwin, at 757.683.8386. If you know that the person in the photographs is alive and well, please contact the Case Manager so that he can be excluded.

More information on the case can be found here and here, and the National Unidentified Persons Database entry can be found here.