Years after they died - some violently, many lonely and desolate - reminders of their lives lie in forensic file folders and on fingerprint cards.
They are the more than 500 people whose remains are still unidentified in Florida. Despite new technologies, solving their cases depends on small handfuls of clues. Not to mention luck.
That was the way a Cleveland police sergeant uncovered the identity of a man killed nearly 20 years ago in Jacksonville.
Sgt. Susan Dennis was wandering online when she found a photo and used an identifying scar to pluck Cedrick Alonzo Harper from the list of unidentified people.
Harper, from Cleveland, was found dead in 1986 on Jacksonville's North Davis Street. No one knew where to turn to identify him.
Dennis, meanwhile, found out about a missing Cleveland man in the early 1990s and mulled over the case for years.
The killer had been arrested, convicted, imprisoned and released before Harper's parents even knew their son was dead.
Dennis broke the news to the couple and said she felt torn when she found their son, because the closure crushed any hope he might be alive.
``Closing out a case like that is hard,'' she said.
He was 23 when he died.
Improvements in the science of identifying the deceased are helping, but for many cases there is just too little information.
When Harper died, large repositories of fingerprints were not what they are today. DNA was a fledgling science just getting its beginnings as an investigative tool, and online databases were unheard of, said Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Sgt. Jim Parker.
Parker is in charge of the city's cold case unit, started about four years ago to work on such in-limbo identities.
His group handles cases that sometimes go back decades, such as a newborn found wrapped in a yellow blanket behind Gateway Shopping Center in 1982 and a premature baby boy found in a Jacksonville International Airport restroom in 1987.
Some of the unidentified have poor teeth or come with tattoos, scars or both. Bits of clothing with a logo, a brand of car keys or a name scrawled on a pair of work boots are among the thin links between the dead and their lives.
A man who washed ashore in 1974 after he was seen walking fully clothed into the surf at Ponte Vedra Beach is among the nearly 50 from the region who remain mysteries.
A SAVVY PUBLIC
About six years ago, staffers at the District 20 Medical Examiner's Office in Collier County were fielding calls from family members and investigators about missing and unidentified people, all while getting a sense that average people were becoming more technologically savvy, said Michael Britt, now the office's chief investigator.
Britt started a network that now collects particulars on unidentified remains cases in the state and posts them online in a format that is searchable and accessible to the public. The network includes most of Florida's more than two dozen medical examiners' offices.
In three years, he said, the system has been responsible for 11 matches - three in the past year.
``The information needs to be online,'' he said.
People interested in a case, whether family members or not, will try to find out what happened to someone who is missing - or worse, he said.
``Obviously, if they were calling me, they would at least be thinking they were dead,'' he said.
But there are problems beyond a lack of information. Gaps in data exist or systems are not user-friendly, Britt contends. And law enforcement agencies can be reluctant to share evidence.
``You are dealing with law enforcement that really wants to keep a handle on information,'' he said.
The problem is not simply a local one, Britt said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Crime Information Center, which police use for license plate and arrest warrant checks, is not open to the public, and the vast amount of information it holds can be cumbersome to access.
SYSTEM `DOESN'T WORK'
``The nationwide system that is in place to make these matches simply doesn't work,'' Britt said.
Britt said he wants police agencies to put information into the hands of those who will use it to solve cases in their lives.
As of Oct. 1, NCIC listed 6,175 cases classified as deceased-unidentified, said FBI spokesman Steve Fischer at the Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg, W.Va.
Fischer said the system fields nearly 6 million hits daily from police officers and contains law enforcement-sensitive information that cannot be shared with the public.
He said that with proper access, the system works as it is intended.
``It's only as good as the information that is put in,'' Fischer said.
Still, once agencies collect beneficial information, they find that managing it is a monumental task, especially with evidence analysis that is in high demand.
``The problem you have is a big backlog with DNA,'' said Sharon Gogerty, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement office in Jacksonville.
Starting in 2007, those convicted of felonies in Florida will have to submit DNA for possible future testing, which will compound the situation.
The agency is requesting 10 new analysts for the state's seven FDLE regions.
``That's why we're so far behind,'' Gogerty said. ``We don't have enough people.''
BASIC FAILURES
Jeff Brokaw, chief forensic investigator for the District 4 Medical Examiner's Office in Jacksonville, said even the basic systems can fail.
``Not all agencies submit fingerprints to the FBI,'' he said. ``Not all agencies submit fingerprints to FDLE.''
Brokaw and others also rely on traditional methods to produce work that does end up in databases of missing people and unidentified victims.
The Medical Examiner's Office is now working with forensic artist Amy Stump. She is making 10 sketches from autopsy photos, he said.
Stump, who has been working as an artist for the Clay County Sheriff's Office since the beginning of the year, said she will soon be working with other agencies as well.
Though not all states and law enforcement groups share their data on unidentified victims, there are national groups that do, such as the private, all-volunteer Doe Network .
With state coordinators and an investigative panel that reviews cases and passes the solid ones on to law enforcement, the network has hundreds of pending matches, said Rocky Wells, director for Florida and Ohio.
According to the Doe Network , Florida has 522 unidentified remains; Georgia has 121.
``We are probably the closest thing you are going to find to a national database,'' Wells said.
The network helped with Harper's identification, Dennis said: ``I would advise anyone if they are missing anyone [to] go on the Doe Network and go state by state.''