@sarkanashier ist der komplette Artikel aus der Albuquerqe Tribune:
Paper: Albuquerque Tribune, The (NM)
Title: Investigators seek help to identify body
Date: February 17, 2001
For more than two months, he has remained in the cooler at the state Office of the Medical Investigator unidentified, unclaimed, dead.Now OMI officials are asking the public for help in identifying the mystery man.
John Doe's body was found Dec. 14 in an arroyo in the Four Hills area. OMI investigators believe he is in his late teens to mid-20s.
He is white, 6-feet-1 1/2 and 160 pounds. He had been well-nourished and had no identifying marks, scars or tattoos.
He wore a tan baseball hat, a purple and green winter coat, a blue and green sweatshirt over a white undershirt, jeans with a purple belt, white socks and gray Adidas size 12 1/2 shoes.
He carried a green backpack, a black watch, a hand mirror and a Swiss army pocket knife.
But the most distinctive possessions were the numerous items with German writing on them, OMI officials said.
"Perhaps he was a German tourist," said Tim Stepetic, OMI director of operations.
Bodies left unclaimed remain at the morgue for at least two weeks while OMI investigators diligently try to identify the remains and contact any relatives, Stepetic said.
"If we think we have a chance of finding anybody, we'll go longer than that," he said.
The corpse remains in a body bag where it is kept in a cooler. If no one ever comes forward to claim it and all efforts are exhausted, the OMI contacts the county where the person resided, he said.
If that, too, is unknown, the county where the body was found gets the call.
Such could be the case for the current John Doe if no one comes forward to claim him.
In Bernalillo County, an indigent fee of $300 is paid to a local funeral home for cremation of the body, said Harry Antram, funeral director at French Mortuary, which handles the majority of indigent services for the county.
The fee is about $700 less than the average cost for a cremation, he said.
French performs about two to three cremations a month for those who have never been claimed from the vaults of the OMI, Antram said.
"It's sad," he said.
The cremains must be held for a year under state law. But exactly who holds onto them is a point of dispute.
Bernalillo County spokeswoman Liz Hamm said the mortuary stores them for the year. But Antram said he believed either the county or a cemetery has that duty.
"We don't hold them," he said. "Our policy to get rid of them as quickly as possible because of liability issues."
But Paul Layer, general manager at Sunset Memorial Park and Mausoleum, said the mortuary does direct where the cremains will remain for the year-long duration.
In the end, however, should no one claim the cremains after a year, its final resting place is in a common crypt with other nameless, unclaimed cremains, he said.
WHO IS HE?
If you have any information as to the identity of this man, please contact Therresa Checkley of the state Office of the Medical Investigator at 272-3053.
