Because of Bob Lingoes, Baltimore detectives were able to identify a murder victim, and police in Texas now know the names of two people who were struck by trains.

As a law enforcement information specialist for the Quincy police, Lingoes routinely uses a computer to check stolen-car listings, criminal records, arrest warrants, driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations.

About 14 months ago, while working on one of the city’s biggest unsolved mysteries, Lingoes realized how important the Internet had become to police investigations.

During the prior 10 years, Lingoes had periodically checked law enforcement computer networks, hoping to find clues to the identity of a skeleton found in woods off Granite Street.

"I can’t even begin to tell you how many missing-person reports I looked at over the years," he said. "I’d guess thousands, and I was frustrated that I couldn’t find anything that matched. I was looking for a needle in a haystack."

Then Lingoes discovered The Doe Network, a volunteer-run web site dedicated to cold cases involving unidentified victims and missing persons.

It brought him closer than ever to identifying the skeleton.

He entered information about the skeleton along with the word "Boston," and the name Joseph Unterhuber came up.

Unterhuber had disappeared from northern Italy in 1988, and his passport had been found in a Boston homeless shelter.

Ultimately, a forensic dentist with the state Medical Examiner’s Office said the skeleton was not Unterhuber’s because its teeth did not match his.

"I was totally astonished. Everything seemed to match like a glove," Lingoes said.

Although disappointed, Lingoes said he was convinced that he could identify other victims.

He joined The Doe Network and continued using it along with the FBI’s National Crime Information Center and other web sites for missing and unidentified people. In less than a year, he had identified the Baltimore and Texas victims.

Because of the Internet, he predicts missing-persons cases that have baffled investigators for years will be solved.

"Ten years ago, you couldn’t have done this. Now, the potential is huge, and there are a number of web sites to use. Law enforcement just has to become aware of them," Lingoes said.

"Bob has a real talent for this," said Jennifer Marra, who co-founded The Doe Network in 1999. Lingoes is the only one of 80 members who has found names for unidentified victims listed on the network.

Since the three successful cases Lingoes has worked on do not involve Quincy, he has researched them in his spare time.

Ironically, he does not own a computer. He uses terminals at the Thomas Crane Public Library.

"I usually spend an hour or so there after work and some more time on weekends," Lingoes said.

He scans The Doe Network for listings with something unusual about the victims.

"I look for cases where the dead person seems to speak," he said.

The word "Tonk," tattooed on the left shoulder of a woman struck by a train in Waco, Texas, in 1993, helped Lingoes identify her as Angela Marie Parks, 23, who had disappeared from her home in Bowling Green, Ky.

Another bulletin on The Doe Network listed a man killed by a train in Victoria, Texas, in 1992, and said he may have gone by the name "Kelly."

Lingoes checked the National Crime Information Center listing and found Kelly may have had the last name Zeazlcal.

He enlisted the help of Vicki Siedow, a Doe Network volunteer who is a private investigator. Using a web site available to licensed private detectives, they found a Social Security number for a Kelly Zeazlcal in Michigan.

Fingerprints on file for Zeazlcal matched those of the train accident victim.

Lingoes became interested in the Baltimore murder last fall when he saw on The Doe Network that the unidentified victim, whose body was discovered in December 2000, was wearing a T-shirt on which the words "Wynn Family Reunion 1977" were printed.

With help again from Siedow and Todd Matthews, another Doe Network volunteer, he traced the T-shirt to a Lumbee Indian tribe family in North Carolina. A family member remembered giving a T-shirt to a Baltimore woman.

With that information, Baltimore detectives last month identified the murder victim as Brenda Wright, 46, of Baltimore.