How can such a unique face go unidentified? — There is a lot of diversity among the many people who have gone unidentified after death. With so many potential reasons behind why someone could go unclaimed, many different and even familiar individuals are represented among these cold cases. What’s unusual, however, is for incredibly distinctive people to go unidentified…

More updates from my old articles — As I continue to write about the stories of unidentified people, the world of DNA technology continues to advance. I published an update article in October with five cases I’d written about that have been solved. Now only a few months later, there are five more to talk about. …

Questions still surround a 1971 Florida murder victim — Of all the unidentified people across the United States, there are few that have truly captivated the public. Among these well-known characters, many are beginning to be identified with advances in DNA technology. The Lady of the Dunes and the Boy in the Box, for example, had their names returned…

The sole survivor of a 1971 plane crash has an insane survival story — On Christmas day, 1971, planes flew above the Peruvian amazon rainforest searching for the remains of a lost commercial aircraft, LANSA flight 508. The plane and its 92 occupants had disappeared the evening before as a thunderstorm engulfed the rainforest which the rescue crafts were now searching. The forest was…

Why was a normal woman elaborately executed and dumped in a cornfield? — There are many ways that people can lose their identities in death. There are countless stories of people who died and went nameless due to situations before their death, the circumstances around it, or even their own choice to go unidentified. However, there are usually patterns in how people become…

The forgotten Jane Doe of Portland Inn — *This article discusses a suicide* Out of the thousands of unidentified people across the country and the world, there are many that unfortunately become forgotten. For a variety of reasons, their cases have faded into the background and are rarely known by the general public. Today’s case is one such…

How did an unknown man die in a factory chimney 35 years ago? — *This article includes images of skeletal remains* As technology for identifying people gets better, we are seeing more and more old cold cases getting solved. DNA has become one of the most powerful weapons to fight unsolved mysteries and many old cases are getting resolved thanks to these new technologies…

All the official updates on my past articles — I’ve been on Medium for nearly two years, and the majority of my now almost 40 published articles are focused on unidentified people. As a result, there have been many cases I’ve covered in the past that have been resolved or had significant updates. Some of these were interesting enough…

The search to find the lost identities of Mt. Baldy and Upland John Doe — *Warning: This case is particularly graphic and includes discussions of mutilation, torture, and sexual assault* Despite being the more famous cases, Does who are murdered in strange ways don’t make up the majority of Doe cases. I’ve covered a lot of those cases here because they are some of the…