page_title: List of unidentified decedents in the United States
section_title: "Dennis" (1999)
hierarchical_section_title: List of unidentified decedents in the United States / Georgia / "Dennis" (1999)
caption_attribution_description: English: FBI reconstrucion of unidentified child found in 1999.
context_page_description: An unidentified decedent, or UID, is a deceased person whose legal identity is unable to be determined by law enforcement. Although the majority of individuals are identified soon after their bodies are recovered, it is not uncommon for bodies to remain unidentified for years or even decades. There are approximately 40,000 unidentified decedents in the United States at any given time.
  A deceased body can be identified in several different ways. Most commonly, a relative of the deceased identifies the body by sight. However, if a body is decomposed, skeletal, or unrecognizable due to severe facial trauma at the time of recovery, other methods must be used. Some common modes of identification include fingerprint comparison, dental records, chest x-rays and comparing the deceased's DNA to the DNA sequence of relatives such as a parent or sibling. Since identification of a deceased individual is a legal matter, officials require a high degree of certainty in order to make a formal identification.
context_section_description: The skeleton of a boy was discovered on February 26, 1999 in Decatur, DeKalb County, Georgia, behind a cemetery at a nearby church. The child was of African heritage, between the ages of five and seven and was about three feet ten to four feet two inches (117–127 cm) tall at a weight between 45 and 60 pounds (20 and 27 kilograms). The boy was clothed in a blue sweatshirt with a plaid design, red jeans and brown boots. The sweatshirt was noted to be significantly larger than the child's estimated size. The boots had been sold in the area in 1998. Testing on the bones indicated the boy was either from the surrounding area, or possibly that he had lived in the Atlanta area or in northern Florida. The cause of death is not known, and no suspects have been noted in the case; if foul play was involved, he appeared to be healthy when he died. It was previously speculated that the body belonged to D'Wan Sims, a child missing since 1994 from Michigan, before DNA testing in 2003 confirmed that Sims was not the John Doe. The case has also been featured on America's Most Wanted.
caption: FBI reconstruction of the Dekalb County John Doe
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