Cybersleuths Solving Cold Cases Through the Use of the Internet

March 27th of 2003 was seemingly just another ordinary day in Key West, Florida. A dazed and disoriented man stumbled over to a bus stop bench that was within easy sight of the local police station. A passerby noticed his confusion and obvious discomfort and called for help. Emergency medical personnel soon arrived and started to attend to him. White drool began to ooze from his mouth as he uttered that he had accidentally overdosed on his cough medication. He was rushed to Lower Keys Medical Center but within a few hours he died.

The Monroe County Medical Examiner performed an autopsy and found that the man had been suffering from bacterial pneumonia but his cause of death was an increased level of Salicylic Acid. The man had died from an overdose of aspirin. The cause of his death was a short-lived mystery, however, his true identity was a true enigma.

The body had no identification on it. His fingerprints did not match up with any in the databases available to the local authorities. There were no local missing person reports that met the description of the deceased man. With no name and no family to notify, his body was buried in a public cemetery and given the standard name of John Doe.

Although this case may be unique in its individual circumstances, it represents an unfortunate and an often too common occurrence in this country. An individual dies and the authorities are unable to identify the body; they are not able to notify the individual’s family or friends. At the same time, somewhere someplace else, there are family and friends that are wondering and worrying about an individual gone missing. As time passes, they feel evermore increasingly powerless to rectify the situation and only final closure will end their terrible desperation.