Tigard's mystery man

OSP forensics scientist hopes to bring closure to cold case

By Christina Cooke

The Times, May 14, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

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“That’s pretty much it at this point,” said Leigh Erickson, a detective for the Tigard Police Department helping with the case. “That’s our best option.”

The department has received a number of phone calls and e-mails from people who say they recognize the man.

A transient man in Tigard said the composite drawing looked like a man named Ray he knew in Medford, and Pastor Dean Epperly of Willowbrook Free Methodist Church in Sherwood said the drawing resembled his friend Danny, who he had been imprisoned with in his younger years .

“Danny always had a big bushy beard and big cheeks,” Epperly said. “When he gets gray, I imagine he’ll make a good Santa Claus.”

Detectives determined, however, that the unidentified man was neither Epperly’s long-lost friend nor an acquaintance of the other tipsters.

“I felt it was my duty to contact them and clear something up if it was him,” Epperly said. “Being incarcerated, after I got done and got clean, I have never been afraid of the police, and I try to be a good citizen.”

Erickson said police are still hoping a tip from a friend or family member will help them solve the case.

In the freezer

Right now, the morgue freezer at State Medical Examiner office in Clackamas contains eight bodies, including the body of a red-haired hiker found near the Pacific Crest Trail in 2002, a female with a steel surgical rod in her left femur found in Marion County in 2004 and a tall man in his mid-30s who washed up on the beach in Lincoln County in 2007.

Some are victims of homicide, and some, like the Tigard man, died of unfortunate accidents.

Vance plans to launch investigations on all the unidentified bodies, starting with the ones that have been around the longest.

“In the homicide cases, it’s really catalyst for investigation,” she said. “If we know who they are, we can know who they associated with and who might have motivation to kill them.”

In the less controversial cases, Vance said, she hopes to bring closure to families who don’t know where their relatives are.

“It would be terrible to not know where your loved one is and have them be in a place like the morgue,” she said.

Vance said of the 1,200 cases her office processes each year, fewer than 1 percent result in unidentified bodies. In the vast majority of cases, investigators are able to identify the deceased, locate their next-of-kin and send the bodies off to funeral homes and burial, she said.

“With these contemporary forensics cases, we tend to get investigative leads on them quickly,” she said. “I think bad guys tend to talk a lot about the things they end up doing.”

Vance hopes to begin the identification process on the rest of the bodies after she gets further with the first.

“We’d love to get them identified,” she said.

But until Tigard’s unidentified man has a name and identity, his body will remain in the freezer, right where it’s been since 2001.

Have information?

If you have a tip that could help Tigard Police identify the mystery man, contact the department at 503-718-2576.

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