What is the identity of the young man who died following an odd car accident which occurred on Oct. 18, 1984 in the town of Malvern, Arkansas?



The question has been pondered for 30-plus years.



At present, the answer is unknown.



The man had been hitchhiking in Louisville, Kentucky, when he was given a ride. The unknown hitchhiker told the driver that he was on his way to Houston, Texas and eventually to California.



But tragedy soon struck the duo. The car went off the road and plunged into a body of water.



The driver managed to escape, but the hitchhiker, submerged underwater for too long, died two days later. The death was ruled accidental.



With the hitchhiker’s identity unknown, he was simply given the number 3123 in the NAMUS system, the national database of unidentified human remains.



There is one seemingly important clue in this case. The driver who picked up the unidentified hitchhiker said the man may have been from the New Haven, Connecticut area.



The hitchhiker is described as being between 25 and 35 years of age, with medium to dark brown hair that was six inches in length. Also, he wore a chin beard that was two inches long. The man stood approximately 5-feet-8-inches tall and weighed 167 pounds.



The deceased had two scars; one was a small, circular shape on his left ankle, and the other was a healed wound from being shot in the chin with a BB gun.



Kermit Channel, executive director of the Arkansas State Crime Lab, believes that with modern technology, and the Internet, this case can finally be solved.



“There is lot we can do today that we couldn’t do 20 years ago,” Channel said. “Hopefully someone will see his picture and realize that this may be someone, like a relative or friend, that they haven’t seen in years.”



Berlin resident Tiffany Menard knows the pain of having a loved one disappear. The military veteran was deployed in October of 2003 when her 40-year-old mother, Mary Menard, vanished.



A drug and alcohol addiction counselor, and a former addict, Mary Menard had recently relapsed.



When Tiffany returned to the United States in 2006, her mother still had not been found.



“I remember searching Jane Does that could match her description, weekly,” Tiffany said. “Countless Internet searches of women who could have amnesia and not know their identities, while secretly hoping I would see her walking down the street.”



Also, Tiffany and her family submitted DNA to a national database which compares genetic codes with unidentified human remains.



In October of 2014, Mary Menard’s remains were positively identified. Hers was one of three female bodies found in a wooded area behind a strip mall on Hartford Road in New Britain in August 2007.



A year later, convicted murderer William Devlin Howell was charged with Mary Menard’s murder.



“My mother was found over a decade of searching, so I can only imagine all of the people who aren’t even reported,” Tiffany Menard stated. “Filing a police report was undoubtedly the most crucial first step my family could have done in getting the answers we needed. With the technology these days I feel there is an even bigger chance in finding closure. Sometimes I hear stories of people that were too ashamed to report because of the issues surrounding the disappearance, but it’s never too late.”



Kermit Channel echoed that. “There’s a feeling that when the family does a report or give DNA, they are admitting that their loved one is dead,” he said. “It shouldn’t be like that.”



Perhaps someone in Connecticut can help give No. 3123 his rightful name.





