When a Garfield County sheriff investigator released clues in April related to an unidentified man whose body was found in the Flat Tops in 2004, the story was reported in media as far away as Grand Junction and Denver.
That's all well and good if the man is from Colorado. But it's of limited value if he's from some other state where people don't watch the Denver news on TV.
To Pat Champeau, a semi-retired Wisconsin private investigator who specializes in looking for missing persons, it points to a glaring gap. If someone from her state is killed, and the body is dropped off in Colorado, it can be hard for investigators, possibly with the help of the public, to make the connection.
"My state has a missing story, your state has a found story, the twain never meet," Champeau said.
Champeau is one of thousands of people around the country who devote themselves to trying to connect the dots between missing cases and found bodies, such as that of the man discovered in the Flat Tops near Glenwood Springs.
"Your guy is one of over 5,000 unidentified human beings in this country. It's more prevalent actually than I think you're aware of," Champeau said.
Cybersleuths
Local investigators dealing with unidentified remains are getting an increased amount of help these days from faraway places, thanks to the advent of the Internet. Both the Flat Tops case and that of remains found on Red Mountain near Glenwood Springs in 2003 are now listed on the Doe Network, at www.doenetwork.us. The site is an international information center on missing persons and unidentified remains. It includes indexes to both categories, often including photos. A picture of a facial reconstruction done on the Red Mountain skull is on the site, as are images of a notebook, boots and other items found with the body in the Flat Tops.
The Flat Tops case also was mentioned in Yahoo's Cold Cases discussion group. All the attention has resulted in people such as Champeau pondering what evidence found with the remains might mean. For example, Champeau is particularly intrigued by the reference in the notebook to "Lib," which may be a nickname for Libby, and which Champeau thinks could be a crucial clue to helping solve the case.
Champeau, who formerly was a Doe Network member, now operates her own blog that she said is devoted to the "lost but not forgotten."
She remains frustrated by the challenge of linking missing persons and found remains. Even the Internet is of limited value in getting information out in a more widespread manner to the general public.
"You have a lot of people with very good intentions, but there are limitations. There's no national way to get these faces out currently," she said.
TV shows such as "Unsolved Mysteries" and "America's Most Wanted" have been of some help, she said. While the Doe Network Web site also has been valuable, she said, one frustration for her is that it only publishes pictures of people who have been missing at least seven years.
Todd Matthews, a Doe Network spokesman and the man who solved what is known as the Tent Girl case, pointed to the sheer volume of missing people - more than 100,000 nationally. He believes the Doe Network is best off concentrating on older cases that police haven't been able to solve. With more than 1,400 cybersleuths as members, the Doe Network has solved or helped solve about three dozen cases.
The Internet is helping end mysteries involving the lost and found in ways that go beyond Web sites, chat rooms and blogs devoted to that goal. Matthews said cases are now easier for people to investigate as well. The Internet has simplified things, such as tracking down the name of a sheriff to talk to in another state, checking the archives of a distant newspaper, or comparing notes on a case with people living around the world.
"It just seems like now there's so many resources out there that weren't there years ago. If I had those the Tent Girl might not have taken 10 years" to solve, he said.
Driven by a mystery
Some people become involved in organizations such as the Doe Network because they have a missing family member, Matthews said. A lot of others, such as him, have a specific case that has haunted them and driven them, and sometimes has become known by a name drawn from its circumstances.
For Matthews, that case was the Tent Girl. Matthews' father-in-law, a water well driller named Wilbur Riddle, found her body wrapped in a green tarp, near a creek off a dirt road in Kentucky. The year was 1968, before Matthews had even been born. In 1987, while working as a quality auditor at a Tennessee auto plant and dating his future wife, he became intrigued by Riddle's discovery.
Hounded by the thought that some family was missing a loved one, he worked the case diligently over the next decade. He finally solved it in 1998 when he came across a missing persons Web site that mentioned a Lexington woman who seemed to match the description of the Tent Girl. DNA tests confirmed his suspicions.
The case that has possessed Champeau has yet to come to any satisfactory ending. After reading a newspaper story, she became interested in trying to identify a woman whose remains were found in Wisconsin in 1999. X-rays show the woman, who had been developmentally disabled, was tortured for four weeks before her death, Champeau said.
Somebody "has gotten away with it for seven years" because about the only people to see a facial reconstruction of the woman live in southeast Wisconsin, Champeau said.
Some people follow missing and unidentified persons cases for other reasons. Jack Sweeney, who lives in China, e-mailed the Post Independent about the Flat Tops case, wanting to know what time of day the remains were found. He researches, practices and teaches an ancient Chinese astronomical science that is sometimes used by police there. Knowing the timing of certain events can yield clues such as the circumstances of a death, the year the deceased was born, and clues to the killer's identity if someone was killed, Sweeney said via e-mail.
"I have e-mailed Garfield Sheriff Lou Vallario, but he chose not to respond, which is not surprising, since most police don't like to reveal anything about murder investigations beyond what has already appeared in the press," Sweeney said.
Sheriff detective Don Breier, the investigator on the case, said he hadn't heard about Sweeney, and added that his approach sounds "kind of curious."
Though Breier said he tries to generally keep an open mind, both he and Vallario said they tend to be skeptical about some things, such as the use of psychics on cases.
"When they start telling me what the winning lottery numbers are and who killed Jimmy Hoffa I'll become a believer," Breier said.
Welcome help
Breier said the Doe Network is "a legitimate organization" that he has worked with in the past. He and Vallario feel the Doe Network and similar groups can help fill a void in making connections between missing people and found remains.
Said Vallario, "There's really no good sort of central registry of missing adults and yet these groups kind of keep track and keep an eye on these things."
Champeau said she has found some law enforcement agencies to be more appreciative than others of attempts by outsiders to try to help solve cases.
Breier and Vallario said they appreciate the public's interest in trying to help solve cold cases.
"We encourage any information," Vallario said. "We encourage anybody who has even any experience in these matters who wants to step out and ... lend us a hand."
When it comes to long-shot leads, said Breier, "What the heck ... it can't hurt to check."
Contact Dennis Webb: 945-8515, ext. 516
dwebb@postindependent.com
http://www.postindependent.com/article/20060915/VALLEYNEWS/109150038