List of formerly unidentified decedents
In the many unidentified decedent cases in the world, there are several cases where the individual is eventually identified. Most bodies are provisionally identified within a matter of hours, with the formal identification following a few days, weeks, or months later.

List of formerly unidentified decedents

Section Title:
Table Section Text: In the many unidentified decedent cases in the world, there are several cases where the individual is eventually identified. Most bodies are provisionally identified within a matter of hours, with the formal identification following a few days, weeks, or months later.

Article	Image	Year of death	Year of identification	Cause of death	Location	Circumstances

Linda Agostini	-	1934	1944	Manslaughter	Australia	A woman whose burned remains were located on a beach. She was identified through dental records and her husband admitted to killing her, yet some question the identification based on difference of physical characteristics.

Lannie Melissa Albritton	1986	2016	Murder	USA	Albritton, known by the nickname "Lissy," went missing from Chula Vista, California on July 1, 1986. Her body was found two weeks later in a desert area off a dirt road in Lancaster, California, but remained unidentified until May 2016.

Tammy Alexander	Postmortem rendering	1979	2015	Murder	USA	A girl who ran away from her Florida home who was later killed in Caledonia, New York.

Mary Lynn Andersen	1982	2014	Murder	USA	23-year-old Andersen was last seen in Gillette, Wyoming in 1982. Her body was found in August 1983 outside of the city buried in a shallow grave.

"Baby Andrew"	1981	2019	Murder	USA	On February 28, 1981, the body of a newborn male infant was discovered on the side of a road in Sioux Falls, Minnehaha County.

Heidi Balch	1989	2013	Murder	USA	The first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin.

Shari Lynne Ball	1983	2014	Murder	USA	20 year old Ball was last seen in Boca Raton, Florida, on June 27, 1983. Her remains were found in Shelby, New York in the October of the same year and were not identified until April 2014.

Michael Baulch	1973	2010	Murder	USA	A victim of serial killer Dean Corll. His older brother, Billy, had earlier been killed by Corll in 1972.

Bell Gardens John Doe	Postmortem photograph	2006	2011	Murder	USA	A Hispanic man was witnessed to have been attacked by a currently apprehended individual in a parking lot of a grocery store and discovered dead on July 6, 2006.

Sonja Blair-Adams	1969	2016	Murder	USA	On June 1, 1969 (some sources state June 2), a young white woman's body was found near a hiking trail on Pine Mountain, Harlan, Kentucky.

Bella Bond	2015	2015	Presumed murder	USA	A toddler whose remains were found on the shore of Deer Island, Massachusetts. She remained unidentified for three months and her case received significant media attention.

Lynn Breeden	1997	1997	Murder	Canada	A woman whose burned body was found in a dumpster. Her unique dental records later confirmed her identity.

Laytwan Brown	1998	2018	Murder	USA	On May 29, 1998, the skeletonized remains of a black male were found by fishermen in the Coosa River in Gadsden, Etowah County, Alabama.

Marilee Bruszer	Skeletal reconstructions	1978	2015	Murder	USA	A victim originally thought to have been eleven years younger than she actually was and whose physical characteristics were inaccurately estimated.

William Bundy	1976	2011	Murder	USA	Bundy, aged 19, was one of eight still-unidentified victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy at the time of Gacy's 1994 execution.

Michelle Busha	1980	2015	Murder	USA	Busha, aged 18, was murdered by a Minnesota state trooper while hitchhiking. Her murder was solved in 1989 but she remained unidentified until 2015.

Darlene Wilson Norcross	2015	2019	Undetermined	USA	The remains of a white woman between 35 and 60 were discovered in a wooded area near West Chester, Ohio, on March 7, 2015.

Jason Callahan	Letter associated with victim	1995	2015	Road Traffic incident	USA	A man identified after he was reported missing 20 years after his initial disappearance.

Roberto Caraballo	2002	2019	Murder	USA	In the afternoon of May 8, 2002, the burned body of a white or Hispanic man was discovered in a wooded area of a blueberry field in Grand Haven, Ottawa County, Michigan.

Anjelica Castillo	1991	2013	Murder	USA	A four-year-old girl who was murdered by her older cousin. She was never reported missing and was identified after a family member noticed a resemblance between the victim and the forensic sketches.

Carol Cole	1980	2015	Murder	USA	A runaway teenager from Texas. She was later murdered in Louisiana.

Mary Kate Chamizo	1999	2006	Murder	USA	A woman found murdered in Illinois. Some believe her case could be connected to that of Racine County Jane Doe, who was also murdered in 1999.

Cheryl Ann Commesso	1989	2014	Murder	USA	A woman murdered in Florida by a man who is believed to be responsible for the deaths of two other victims, one of whom has never been found.

Audrey Lee Cook	1985	2019	Murder	USA	A suspected victim of the Texas Killing Fields murder spree. Cook was one of two long-term unidentified victims and was never reported missing.

Susan Denise Cook	1996	2014	Murder	USA	32-year-old Cook was last seen in Phoenix, Arizona on December 14, 1996. Her remains were found between 87th Avenue and West Dobbins Road in June 1997.

Patrice Corley	Postmortem rendering	1990	2017	Murder	USA	A 29-year-old woman from Louisville, Kentucky who was found dead behind a gas station west of Hebron, Ohio, on Thursday, April 19, 1990.

Charles "Chuck" Cornell	Postmortem rendering	1989	2016	Road traffic incident	USA	A white man between 20 and 40 years of age was killed after a tractor trailer collided with his body on Highway 52 in Hamburg, Ashley County, Arkansas on May 24, 1989.

Amber Creek	1997	1998	Murder	USA	A teenager whose body was found in a swamp in Wisconsin. She was identified after her case was broadcast on America's Most Wanted.

Crittenden County John Doe	Postmortem rendering	1982	2016	Drowning	USA	A black man between 30 and 60 years old was found in the Mississippi River on October 28, 1982, in West Memphis, Crittenden County, Arkansas.

Deanna Criswell	Skeletal rendering	1987	2015	Murder	USA	A teenage runaway from Washington who was killed in Arizona. Her murder was solved before her identification.

Nancy Grace Daniel	1976	2014	Murder	USA	14-year-old Daniel was last seen in Orlando, Florida on September 7, 1976. Her remains were found by hunters near Lake Mann in the same city.

Cynthia Louise Day	1990	2016	Murder	USA	Day went missing from National City, Illinois on August 10, 1990. Her body was found only sixteen days later in a secluded area of Pike County, Missouri, but remained unidentified until July 2016, when a thumbprint revealed her name.

Joseph Decker	Postmortem reconstruction	1967	2017	Murder	USA	On October 31, 1967, a white male was shot and left in the hallway of a hotel in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California.

Dana Dodd	Forensic rendering based on skull	2006	2019	Murder	USA	Dodd, last known to reside in Jacksonville, Florida, was discovered burned beyond recognition in Kilgore, Texas. She was identified 12 years later with the aid of the DNA Doe Project.

John Clifton Downey	1984	2017	Murder	USA	Downey was found dead in an area of brush alongside a dirt trail in Des Moines, Iowa in 1984. Despite having several unusual tattoos on his body, Downey remained unidentified until an upgraded fingerprint system by the FBI in 2017 confirmed his identity.

Diana Jane Elmore	1990	2014	Murder	USA	Elmore, 32, disappeared from Lone Grove, Oklahoma on August 5, 1990. Her remains were found in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1991, but were not identified until November 2014.

Bina Emery	1988	2015	Murder	USA	Bina, 14, disappeared from Detroit, Michigan on February 23, 1988. In July 1988, her body was found in the Detroit River.

Beverly Lynn England	1980	2015	Murder	USA	England went missing from Salida, Colorado, on June 12, 1980. Her remains were found in 1992 and identified in September 2015.

Alexander Fallon	1987	2004	King's Cross fire victim	UK	A Scottish man who was previously nicknamed "Michael" and "Body 115" prior to his identification.

Darcie Frackenpohl	1987	1987	Murder	USA	A runaway from Washington later killed in California. She was the only victim of Roger Kibbe to be a minor.

Francine Frost	1981	2016	Murder	USA	Frost disappeared from Tulsa, Oklahoma, on February 16, 1981. Her remains were found in Muskogee County, Oklahoma two years later, but remained unidentified until August 2016.

"Alfred Jake Fuller"	2014	2018	Natural causes	USA	A middle aged man found expired in his hotel room. He used the alias "Alfred Jake Fuller" when checking in.

Michelle Garvey	1982	2014	Murder	USA	A runaway from Connecticut whose body was found a month after her disappearance in Texas.

Brenda Gerow	1981	2015	Murder	USA	A woman from New Hampshire found in Arizona. She was identified after a photograph in a convicted murderer's possession was identified to be her by her family and was then matched by DNA to her body.

Holly Glynn	Sketch	1987	2015	Suicide	USA	A woman who jumped to her death from a cliff in Dana Point, California. Her case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries.

Delores Diane Gonzales	1974	2015	Murder	USA	Gonzales disappeared from Gulfport, Mississippi, on June 21, 1973. Her remains were found in Choctaw County, Alabama, in 1974.

Sidney Leslie Goodwin	-	1912	2008	Shipwreck (RMS Titanic)	Atlantic Ocean	An infant who died on the RMS Titanic. He was previously thought to be one of two other young children who died when the ship sank.

Kerry Graham	1978	2015	Presumed murder	USA	Discovered alongside the body of her friend, who are believed to have been murdered when they disappeared in 1978. Kerry Graham's body was originally thought to be male before DNA testing proved otherwise.

Erica Green	2001	2005	Murder	USA	A young child murdered in 2001. The brutality of her murder led to national attention.

James Haakenson	1976	2017	Murder	USA	Haakenson, aged 16, was one of eight still-unidentified victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy at the time of Gacy's 1994 execution.

Randell Harvey	1971	2008	Murder	USA	One of serial killer Dean Corll's victims.

Frank Haynes	1921	2017	Train accident	USA	Formerly known as Some Mother's Boy, Haynes died from injuries sustained as he attempted to beat a train across the track in Georgetown, Kentucky.

Cynthia May Hernandez	1976	2016	Murder	USA	Hernandez disappeared from Glendora, California, on August 26, 1976. A skull was unearthed besides Larry James Allred's cabin in Twin Peaks later that year.

Darrell J. Hill	1994	2014	Murder	USA	29-year-old Hill was last seen in Los Angeles, California, on March 6, 1993. His remains were found in a ditch along State Route 16 in Purdy, Washington around Christmas in 1994.

Erika Hill	2007	2015	Murder	USA	A teenager who was abused by her adoptive mother. She was identified after her adoptive sister discovered her case file online.

Tracey Hobson	Forensic sketch	1987	2019	Murder	USA	A young woman discovered murdered in 1987. After 31 years, she was identified as a resident of the same city in which her remains were discovered.

Andrea Kuiper	Sketch	1990	2017	Vehicle accident	USA	A young woman, between the ages of eighteen and thirty, was killed after she stepped into the path of an oncoming vehicle on April 1, 1990, on the Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, California.

George Robert Johnston	Sketch	2004	2006	Suicide	USA	A Canadian man who smuggled guns and dealt drugs in California. He committed suicide in a police standoff.

Jon-Niece Jones	2002	2012	Murder	USA	A girl whose burned skeleton was found in 2005. Her mother is believed to be responsible for her death, but died before she could be prosecuted.

"Julissa"	Postmortem rendering	2004	2017	Murder	USA	The strangled body of a Hispanic, possibly Dominican, woman was located in New York City on April 27, 2004. The woman was dead less than a day and was between 20 and 30 years old.

Reet Jurvetson	Postmortem rendering	1969	2016	Murder	USA	A Canadian woman killed in Los Angeles, California. She may be a victim of Charles Manson and his followers or an unidentified suspect.

Rickie Lee Jones	1991	2008	Murder	USA	A victim of a serial killer. His companion was also a victim and also remained unidentified.

Marcia King	1981	2018	Murder	USA	Found murdered in Ohio. She was identified through DNA.

April Lacy	Sketch and image of victim	1996	1998	Murder	USA	A teenager originally thought to be much older when she was discovered. DNA later identified her.

Kori Lamaster	Skeletal rendering	1994	2013	Murder	USA	A teenager reported missing over a decade after she originally disappeared. She was identified through DNA and fingerprints.

Elizabeth Lamotte	1985	2018	Murder	USA	A teenager who disappeared from New Hampshire in 1984. She was later found murdered in Tennessee a year later.

"Laundry Lady"	Postmortem rendering	1987	2016	Road traffic incident	USA	A woman was struck and killed by a vehicle while she walked on Highway 61 on September 9, 1987 in West Memphis, Crittenden County, Arkansas.

Annie Lehman	1971	2019	Undetermined	USA	A teenage girl whose remains were discovered in Cave Junction, Oregon on August 1971. She was identified with the assistance of the DNA Doe Project.

Wanda Jean Mays	1986	2008	Accidental fall	USA	Mays, who disappeared from her relatives' rural home in Guntersville, Alabama, after midnight May 12, 1986, was initially believed to have been either abducted or possibly murdered.

Darlene Rene McKenzie	1975	2016	Murder	USA	McKenzie disappeared from Detroit, Michigan around 1975 when she was 16-17. Her body was found later that year in Farmington Hills, Michigan, but remained unidentified until December 2016.

Kimberly McLean	2010	2016	Suicide	USA	A woman who stole the identity of deceased Becky Sue Turner and later changed her name to "Lori Erica Ruff" in 1988.

Sandra Major	1982	2012	Murder	USA	A woman murdered by serial killer Gary Ridgway in 1982. Her remains were found three years later.

Reyna Marroquin	-	1969	2000	Murder	USA	An immigrant from El Salvador who was killed after she informed her lover's wife of his affair. Her remains were not discovered until 1999, thirty years after her murder.

Gail Mathews	1983	1985	Murder	USA	A woman murdered by serial killer Gary Ridgway. She was identified after her sister-in-law recalled the victim had previously injured her pelvis when it was announced that the unidentified victim appeared to have had the same injury.

Angel McAllister	1999	2017	Murder	USA	On October 9, 1999, in Yuma, Yuma County, Arizona the body of a white female aged between 15 and 22 was discovered within hours after her death.

Cheryl McMillan	Postmortem rendering	1968	2016	Overdose	USA	On June 8, 1968, a white female between 20 and 28 was found dead on a picnic table in Griffith Park in Hollywood, California.

Rosemma Mendenhall	1990	2015	Murder	USA	Mendenhall was a transient who went missing from Eureka, California in 1990. Her mummified remains were found east of Corning, California in October 1990.

Cynthia Merkley	1991	2018	Murder	USA	On April 26, 1991, the body of a woman was found lying face-up in Vacaville, Solano County, California. The victim had died either by strangulation or suffocation.

Martha Morrison	1974	2015	Murder	USA	A teenager from Oregon murdered in 1974 after she left an argument with her roommate. Morrison's remains were found in Washington a few months later.

Tina Mott	1996	1996	Manslaughter	USA	A woman killed by her boyfriend while he was intoxicated. Her remains were later identified after initial DNA tests were inconclusive.

Barbara Mullenix	2006	2006	Murder	USA	A woman murdered by her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend. The body was placed in a box and deposited in the Newport Bay.

New York John Doe	Postmortem rendering	1997	2018	Accident	USA	A black male was electrocuted after coming in contact with the railway tracks in a substation on June 23, 1997 in New York City.

Lisa Nichols	1984	1985	Murder	USA	A possible hitchhiker who was killed and deposited along a highway. She may be the victim of an unidentified serial killer.

Cengiz Han Nuray	1995	2014	Murder	USA	Cengiz, 17, disappeared from Santa Cruz, California on April 27, 1995. Later that year, his badly decomposed body was found in the water off Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove, California.

Bun Chee Nyhuis	1987/1988	circa 1989	Murder	USA	An Asian-American woman killed by her husband. She was identified after friends recognized her reconstruction.

Marguerite O'Brien	Postmortem rendering	1985	2015	Road traffic incident	USA	On August 3, 1985, a woman was killed when she attempted to cross a highway in Fontana, San Bernardino County, California.

Atcel Olmedo	2005	2011	Murder	USA	A toddler believed to have been killed by his abusive stepfather. Since the suspects have since fled the country, they could not be located and tried.

Priciliano Ontiveros	1987	2014	Murder	USA	32-year-old Ontiveros was last seen in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 29, 1987. His skull was found by hikers in the Salt River bottom near 91st Avenue in the same area in 1992.

Colleen Orsborn	1984	2011	Murder	USA	A victim of a serial killer. She had previously been excluded as a possible identity for the body, but DNA later disproved this.

Espy Pilgrim	-	1985	2018	Murder	USA	A woman, believed to be a hitchhiker, found in an abandoned refrigerator along a Kentucky highway. Pilgrim is believed to be a victim of the so-called Redhead murders, which occurred in the Southeastern part of the US in the mid 1980s.

Edna Posey	1984	1985	Murder	USA	A woman whose torso was found in a cardboard box. A man was later convicted, but DNA later exonerated him.

Barbara Precht	Postmortem rendering	2006	2014	Drowning	USA	A woman who was found drowned under unknown circumstances in a river in 2006. She was identified through fingerprints.

Karen Price	1981	c. 1989	Murder	Wales	A runaway who later turned to prostitution. She was found wrapped in a carpet and was nicknamed "Little Miss Nobody" while she remained unidentified.

Donna Prudhomme	1991	2019	Murder	USA	One of two longterm unidentified victims of the so-called Texas Killing Fields. She was identified through genetic genealogy testing and was never reported missing.

Pulaski County John Doe	1999	2016	Murder	USA	On November 6, 1999, the skull of a 30- to 50-year-old Native American or Asian man was discovered in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas.

Rapides Parish Jane Doe	1998	2016	Murder	USA	On April 12, 1998, a woman's body was found in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. She had begun to decompose and was left naked at the scene.

Christe Rogers	1989	1989	Murder	USA	Victim of suspected serial killer Oba Chandler.

Jo Rogers	1989	1989	Murder	USA	Victim of suspected serial killer Oba Chandler.

Michelle Rogers	1989	1989	Murder	USA	Victim of suspected serial killer Oba Chandler.

Joseph Pace	1986	2017	Murder	USA	In Ontario, San Bernardino County, California, the body of a Caucasian male was discovered in the bedroom of a vacant house on August 21, 1986.

Riley Ann Sawyers	2007	2007	Murder	USA	A toddler killed by her abusive mother in 2007. She remained unidentified for several months and was nicknamed "Baby Grace."

Suzanne Sevakis	1990	2014	Road traffic incident	USA	A woman believed to have been killed in a hit-and-run accident. Some suspect her abductor, who went on to raise and marry her, was responsible for her death.

Stewart Eric Simmons	1982	2014	Murder	USA	20-year-old Simmons was last seen in San Diego, California on June 19, 1982. His skeletal remains were found on October 22 of the same year buried in Archuleta County, Colorado, on the New Mexico border, showing signs of a beating and a gunshot.

Joseph Norman Spears	1973	2016	Traffic accident	USA	Joseph was hit and killed by a vehicle in Texas City, Texas, while attempting to cross a freeway. He had run away from a juvenile detention facility in Gulfport, Mississippi on July 30, 1973.

David Stack	1976	2015	Murder	USA	A man killed while hitchhiking to California. He was identified by DNA after similarities between his dental charts and the unidentified body were discovered.

"Lyle Stevik"	2001	2018	Suicide	USA	A 25-year-old who hanged himself in a hotel in Amanda Park, Washington. He used the alias "Lyle Stevik," believed to be taken from a Joyce Carol Oates novel.

Oral Alfred Stuart Jr.	1974	2012	Murder	USA	Found murdered at a condominium complex near Interstate 605 in Long Beach, California, on November 10. The United States Marine Corps had listed Stuart as AWOL as a result of his disappearance, though this was reversed after his identification.

Barbara Taylor	1967	1998	Murder	USA	A woman believed to have been murdered by her husband, now deceased. She was nicknamed "Tent Girl" while she remained unidentified.

Teala Patricia Thompson	1967	2016	Murder	USA	Thompson's body was discovered in a landfill in Salem Township, Pennsylvania. She had disappeared from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 5, 1967 which was two weeks before the discovery.

Francine Trimble	Earring	1978	2015	Presumed murder	USA	Found alongside her friend, Kerry Graham in 1979.

Tammy Vincent	Crime scene	1979	2007	Murder	USA	A Washington native murdered in California before she was due to testify in court. NCIS cast member Pauley Perrette appeared on America's Most Wanted when the case was detailed.

Margaret Ann Walden	1982	2014	Murder	USA	39-year-old Walden was last seen in Durango, Colorado, in June 1982. Her skeletal remains were found in Espanola, New Mexico, right on the Colorado border on October 22, 1982, along with the body of a young man.

Regina Walters	1990	c. 1991	Murder	USA	Victim of serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades. Her companion was also killed by the same person.

Kelly Ann Ward	1986	2014	Murder	USA	On February 20, 1997, two maintenance workers of the Swatara Township Sewer Authority discovered the skeleton of a female estimated to be between eighteen and thirty in Swatara Township, Pennsylvania.

Glenn Wilson	2008	2015	Presumed murder	USA	The body of a white male between 35 and 55 was located on April 5, 2008, in the Sandy River Reservoir in Prince Edward County, Virginia.

Mark "Duane" Woodard	Skeletal rendering	1977	2016	Murder	USA	On March 22, 1977, the skeleton of a male between 17 and 25 years old was found in Summerfield, Florida. He was probably white, although he may have been descended from someone from the Caribbean.

Janice Marie Young	Postmortem rendering	1973	2015	Road traffic incident	USA	A girl pushed in front of a moving vehicle in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Sentence(s)

Martha Morrison (1974) was a American girl who was murdered in 1974, and whose remains went unidentified for over 40 years after their discovery.

final_sentence: Martha Morrison (1974) was a American girl who was murdered in 1974, and whose remains went unidentified for over 40 years after their discovery.