Credit: Hennepin County
Hennepin County (Minnesota) has launched a new project to help identify some of the 150 unidentified persons cases in the Medical Examiner’s Office.
The project is a collaborative effort with partners across the state and nation, including NamUs and the Minnesota Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office, to provide answers and closure to affected families.
On Tuesday, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office released fact sheets for the first five unidentified people—and said they plan to release additional case information as reviews continue.
The medical examiner’s office said it will review the cases using tools and technology that were not available when many of the original death investigations were conducted, including forensic genetic genealogy.
The project is supported by a federal grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and is led by Jessica Campbell, Minnesota’s only board-certified forensic anthropologist.
The unidentified
The oldest of the five unidentified cases is a white male whose remains were recovered from the Mississippi River on Sept. 25, 1995. He was last seen entering the river eight days earlier. The man was in his 40’s at the time of his death, and had a heart with the name “Cindy” in his pocket. He also looked to have multiple homemade tattoos, and has his right breast tissue and nipple surgically removed.
A year later, in September 1996, another unidentified man was pulled from the Mississippi River. He is thought to be American Indian, between 28-50 at the time of death, and 5’9”, weighing almost 200 pounds. He had long black hair with minimal greying. He had no tattoos, scars or other distinctive markings.
On May 8, 1997, police recovered the remains of a man with multiple known aliases but no confirmed true identification. “Paul Salas Mejia” was in his 40s at his time of death, with a chronic seizure disorder. He also had a closed head trauma from about 20 years prior and a recent assault, with residual medical staples above the left ear and right forehead. The man had multiple tattoos on his arms, including: 57, a hat, M, O, Snoopy, Monica, Leti and E.
At the time of death in November 1999, a multiracial man between 40 and 60 was using the alias “Zorro Gonzalez.” About 5’7”, the unidentified man weighted around 130 pounds and experienced rapid weight loss from a recent health diagnosis. While he did not have any distinguishing markers, the man has no natural teeth left.
The last unidentified case is from September 2003. Mostly skeletonized remains were recovered from a horse farm in Prior Lake, Minnesota. The medical examiner’s office estimates the man was between 20 and 35 years of age at the time of death, and between 5’4” and 5’9”. He was most likely Latino, Central American and/or West African. While no tattoos or distinctive marks, he did have well-healed fractures to the right fifth-seventh ribs, left sixth rib, and posterior sacrum.
As the team reviews more cases, fact sheets will be added to the “Unidentified Persons project” tab on the Hennepin County website, as well as the county’s social media.