John or Jane Does With Very Clear Facial Photos -- Remain Unidentified

Author: Shane Lambert
Time of publication: January 29th, 2021

On this web page, I highlight cases of Unidentified Persons (UPs) who are deceased. What unifies all the UP profiles on this page is that a great photo of them is provided with their profiles from a time when they were alive. The photos of the unidentified persons are of good enough quality that these are cases where the only thing that is required to solve them is both media exposure and a person who is willing to simply state their names. 

Besides the mystery of their identities, there is the extra mystery of how they can be unidentified despite the clear pictures of their faces. I am not talking about media exposure when I state that. Rather, how did the authorities get the pictures of them alive without someone coming across their names? Did the decedents have pictures of themselves in their wallets? 

This is a web page that is always a work in progress: I will add to as I come across more cases that fit the category. Minimally, please scroll through this page and look at the faces even if you don't feel like reading that much. If a link is, pardon the pun, dead, then please report it in the comments.

Shane Lambert

February 2nd, 2025

I looked at the following case tonight and it also looked solvable. However, a lot of time has passed. But you would think this case would be solved if only enough people looked at the photo. Currently, she is known only as #UP127230.

January 13th, 2025

I worked on this one tonight. It looked solvable!

NamUs #UP76876

January 13th, 2025: Update! This one was solved! At least, they removed the profile (which usually means the person was unidentified.

This fellow was found dead in the Arizona desert on October 26th, 2020. He was believed to have been dead for about 36 hours. His height was measured to be 5'4" and his weight was estimated to be 125 to 135 pounds.

The reason they have a photo of him from life is because they were able to take a fingerprint off of his corpse. The print matched an apprehension from March 2020. The photo is an apprehension photo from that time.

He gave the name Gregorio Cota Valenzuela in March 2020, however, this may be an alias. That detail is something I find strange as I didn't think getting away from the authorities when they are fingerprinting you was as simple as giving a fake name, however, I guess there are scenarios where that is possible.

This individual was found by the USPB (United States Border Patrol). Individuals found in remote desert locations in Arizona by the USPB are often Mexican nationals that may be walking to Phoenix. However, that this person was fingerprinted seven months before he died may suggest that he was in the USA for a long time.

Still, I would not be surprised if he is a Mexican national. If you are working on this case, fluent English and Spanish may be useful in order to look at the missing person websites in Mexico.

Canada's Missing Case reference: 2017073538

January 25th, 2025 update: This case does not seem to be active anymore as the link no longer contains information. It says it was updated on May 10th, 2023.

This case comes from Canada. The man on the right is thought to be an Albertan. He was found deceased in Ontario on October 15th, 2016.

At some point, he identified himself as Mitchell Nelson. At some point, the photo of him must have been taken, maybe by police.

If you visit his UP profile with Canada's Missing using the hyperlink above, then you'll see that they have composite sketches of him too. 

This is truly a strange UP profile. It's the only unidentified person profile I've looked at where they have a composite sketch AND a photo of the UP from when he was alive. There also appears to be a sidelonged photo of him riding a bike and pulling a huge canoe, which is a really weird photo. If they found these photos of him on the John Doe, then why do the sketch?

In another strange twist, this man is given an age range of 40 to 67 years old. I don't see how anyone can look at that photo and see someone who is as young as 40. I see someone who is at least 50 and probably 53 to 63 is I was to give a ten-year guess.

NamUs Mising Persons -- Five Unidentified from Hartford Circus Fire 1944

By: Shane Lambert
Original Time of Writing: December 11th, 2020

The Hartford Circus Fire was a fire disaster that occurred during the WWII years when, in July of 1944, a small fire broke out at a live circus show. The tent that housed the circus had a coating on it that was meant to waterproof it. One side effect of that was that the tent was hardly fire retardant. In fact, it was a very flammable material as were many of the fixtures used to house the show.

What resulted when a small fire broke out, which may have been due to arson or from a discarded cigarette, was a quickly spreading fire that led to immediate panic among thousands of attendees and performers. Most of these attendees escaped to safety but a combination of chaos, trampling, asphyxiation from smoke inhalation, and burning to death killed 167 people and injured hundreds and hundreds more. The headline below, which is taken from journalism from the day after the fire, states 139 were dead but this was just the preliminary number. The number increased to 167.

Fri, Jul 7, 1944 – 1 · Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut) · Newspapers.com

Not all of the victims who died in this tragedy were identified. In fact, there was a famous missing person case that resulted from this fire. A young girl, who was trampled to death in the panic, went unnamed for several decades. Once known as Little Miss 1565, she was believed to have been Eleanor Emily Cook.

Sun, Jun 23, 1991 – 7 · The Journal Times (Racine, Wisconsin) · Newspapers.com

At least five people remain unidentified at the time of writing. They are #UP59498, #UP59500,  #UP59502, #UP59503, and #UP59504. If you are looking at a missing person's case with a lead that points to the Hartford, Connecticut area on or in the days leading up to July 6th, 1944, then keep these Jane and John Does in mind. If you are interested in a decent video that reviews the fire, then I watched a good one on Youtube and have it embedded below:

Shani Ann Estes (NamUs MP#1204) vs. UP#5963

By: Shane Lambert

Shani Ann Estes has been missing since 2005, that much is clear. However, there is some contradictory information out there from governmental sources as to the date she was last seen. NamUs (she's MP#1204) says she was last seen on November 24th, 2005. The State of California's Department of Justice's website says she was last seen on December 7th, 2005. Regardless, there's reason to consider her as a match to UP#5963.

Shani, according to CharleyProject's profile for her, had an argument with her husband on November 24th, 2005 and then disappeared. The suggestion at that website is that the husband is not a suspect and that Shani left on her own accord.

On the night of January 10th, 2006 a woman known as UP#5963 was found deceased in a burned-out apartment in San Francisco. The distance between where Shani was last seen and this apartment is about 290 miles in the same state of California. 

The time elapsed between the date of the fire and when Shani was last seen depends on what date we go by. We are looking at just over a month if we go by December 7th, 2005 or a month and a half if we go by November 24th, 2005. Regardless, there's no reason to rule one other out yet as possible matches.

UP#5963 is described as not recognizable because of burns suffered in the apartment fire. Accordingly, all physical descriptions have to be taken with a grain of salt.

But the dead individual is listed as a female that was white and that matches Shani. The heights between Shani and the decedent are just 1 inch off and that makes them a match from that point of view because heights are often estimated.

The age of the deceased UP could not really be estimated but she was considered to be an adult. The weight between Shani and the decedent appears to be well off, a full 40 pounds. Furthermore, the eye color is off between the two.

But what's interesting about UP#5963, someone who had brown eyes according to NamUs, was that she was ruled-out against MP#490, a person who had blue eyes. The basis for the rule out may have been a scar: UP#5963 had a scar on her lower-right abdomen and the MP had a scar as well.

That the Unidentified Person with brown eyes was compared to a missing person with blue eyes suggests that the authorities aren't confident in one of the two's eye colors. That may have something to do with the fact that the UP was burned to death. Can you accurately get eye color from charred remains?

MP#490, the rule-out of the UP, went missing in June of 1996 in Arizona. That's far away from San Francisco and the time factor is large, nearly a full decade. If MP#490 can be looked at as a possible match to UP#5963 then surely Shani can.

Shani was much closer to UP#5963 in terms of time and space. Furthermore, Shani may have had a scar right where the Unidentified Person had one. Shani is described as having a "surgical scar" from a c-section, a scar that would be on her abdomen and possibly her lower-right abdomen according to some pictures I googled of c-section scars. The UP had a scar on the lower-right abdomen -- perhaps from the same c-section?

These two are worth a look at despite the mismatching eye color in my opinion. If they aren't one and the same then at least they should be listed as rule outs of one another to prevent future work on the possible match.

NamUs UP#13280 and UP#13278

By: Shane Lambert

I spent some time reading about two cases of unidentified people tonight, cases from January of 2003. The cases may be related although NamUs does not connect them. They are NamUs UP#13280 and UP#13278.

The former was found in Imperial County on January 2nd, 2003 and believed to be dead for five months. The latter was found in the same county on January 7th, 2003 and also believed to be dead for five months. The zip codes associated with the deaths are about 9.4 miles apart according to Google Maps. Both decedents were described as being found in the "open desert."

UP#13280 was found near a jacket that had The Master Palette logo on it. Anyone working on this case may want to know that the logo is associated with Glidden Professional, a paint company. The first snippet below shows the logo on the decedent's jacket while the second snippet shows the logo inset into a website (webpage was active at time of writing). They are remarkably similar.

With UP#13278, I did some research on the most striking feature of this deceased person's remains. She had gold star inlays on her front dentures. In an article published on April 4th, 2007 at the Houston Press, author Olivia Flores Alvarez regales a story of an individual he met in March of that year who had gold star inlays on her front teeth. That person can't be UP#13278 because this UP died in 2002. However, according to Alvarez the gold star inlays are "a popular fashion in highland Guatemala." The title of the article is "Packing Meat" and the topic is illegal immigrant workers.

The relevance is that UP#13278 may have originated from highland Guatemala. This region is in southern Guatemala. It lays between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the south and the Petén lowlands to the north.

Anyone working on these cases should be aware of connections to Glidden Professional and to the highlands of Guatemala.

NamUs UP #17549 vs NamUs MP #34827 (Stephanie Hunsberger)

In this article, a comparison and contrast will be made between an Unidentified Person (UP) and a Missing Person (MP). Attempts to rule out the possibility that the UP is the MP will be made. That failing, the MP and UP may end up being one and the same person.

NamUs UP #17549

NamUs's UP #17549 is an individual with a very problematic profile. This deceased female was found in garbage bags bound with an electrical cord in Philadelphia. The individual was found on June 2nd, 1980 and her profile was uploaded to NamUs on March 7th, 2018. That's a very large gap relative to many other profiles.

She was found in a vacant house, her head was not recovered, and one or more limbs was not recovered. Although she was found on June 2nd, 1980 she was believed to had died sometime between 1978 and 1980. Her height was estimated at 68 inches (5'8") but the estimation has to be taken loosely based on her decomposed state and the absence of her head and maybe even her legs. Her age range is large, between the ages of 20 and 40 years old. The saving grace of this profile is DNA: they have a sample that is not yet processed.

Commentary

When the head and limbs aren't recovered with a clearly murdered decadent it suggests that the victim's murderer made an attempt to keep the decadent's identity hidden from the authorities. In the 1970s and prior, before DNA was popular, teeth and fingerprints were a common method of identification. Whoever put the decadent in the garbage bags may have been concerned about her identity providing a link to the murderer.

Similar UP case: bones found in two bags in Philadelphia in 1979.

NamUs #34827

When the following search parameters are used, there is only one match in NamUs. 

Date last seen: January 1st, 1978 to April 1st, 1980 (I took two months off the higher date because of the decomposed state)

Age last seen: 18 to 42 (note: I used a larger range by two years in each direction relative to the decadent's information)

Sex: female

Height: 66 inches to 70 inches

State: Pennsylvania

That search criteria only brings up Stephanie Hunsberger, an individual with a very-lengthy profile at NamUs. She also lead what seems to be a high-risk lifestyle at the time, with prostitution and drugs a part of her life. Her official last-seen date is February 25th, 1978 according to NamUs but there are those that have told authorities she was alive in 1979. 

They have a completed DNA sample for Stephanie. If she is the decadent in the corded garbage bags then, once the decadent's DNA is processed, the match will likely be made.

NamUs #22939

Another potential match is NamUs #22939. She is Jennifer Prince, an individual who has been missing since November 18th, 1978. Prince's height is just one inch off of 68" and her age is in the range, She went missing in New Jersey, which is just across the state line from where the decedent was found. She is missing from a city called Brick, about 66 miles away from where the decedent was found. DNA is available in Prince's case as well.

NamUS UP #16509 (Springhill Jane Doe) vs. NamUs MP #25291 (Victoria Shoupe)

By: Shane Lambert
Original Time of Writing: February 15th, 2018
Updated: March 16th, 2025

The Springhill Jane Doe, as of March 16th, 2025, remains listed as UP #16509 on NamUs. She is an unidentified individual who died in a vehicle accident without any identification on May 2nd, 1986.

This case stands out because it feels solvable. With a clear post-mortem photo and a solid description available on her NamUs profile, you’d think identification would just take the right person seeing it. Yet, nearly 39 years later, she remains nameless. This mystery reminds me of a once-unsolved case: the Grateful Doe, identified in 2015 as Jason Callahan.

Grateful Doe: A Solved Case That May Have Insight

The Grateful Doe was a hitchhiker who died on June 26th, 1995. He also died in a car accident while riding as a passenger. Like the Springhill Jane Doe, he carried no ID, leaving his identity a puzzle for years. Headlines for both could’ve read the same: young, transient, and unknown.

Callahan’s resolution offers insight. He had personal strifes with family members at the time of his death. That led loved ones to assume he’d cut contact with them voluntarily.

It wasn’t until 2015 that Jason's mother reported him missing, linking him to the Grateful Doe. Could the Springhill Jane Doe have a similar story? Estrangement might explain why no one’s claimed her, despite a clear photo that could make identification straightforward—if only the right eyes see it.

I feel like this is a case that could have been solved through publicity alone. But with the forty-year mark of her death approaching, it's now very possible that many of those who knew her have forgotten about her, if they didn't know her that well. Conversely, it stands to reason that many of those who did know her well have since died themselves.

Unpacking the Springhill Jane Doe’s NamUs Profile

Her NamUs entry might complicate things. It lists her as white, but a *Pittsburgh Post-Gazette* article from June 13th, 1986, by Vince Leonard quotes coroner Phillip Reilly noting his opinion that she had "characteristics of the American Indian, Negro, or possibly Asian races." This ambiguity or mixed ancestry suggests flexibility is key when matching her to missing persons.

The age range on NamUs—30 to 45 at death—also feels off. My take on her post-mortem photo is that it shows no graying hair or wrinkles, signs I’d expect in someone older.

A *Pittsburgh Press* report from May 3rd, 1986, estimated her in her early 20s. If that’s right, searches targeting 30–45-year-olds might’ve overlooked her. I’d widen the net to 17–45 to cover all possibilities.

*The Pittsburgh Press*, May 3rd, 1986, Pg. 24 (no author listed)

Springhill Jane Doe vs. Victoria Shoupe: A Possible Match?

Update, March 16th, 2025: I previously contacted a relative of Victoria Shoupe via Facebook about a potential match. They reviewed the Jane Doe’s photo and doubted they were the same person. No further progress has emerged as of now.

Victoria Shoupe, listed as NamUs MP #25291, vanished in May 1984—exactly two years before the Springhill Jane Doe’s death. Among missing persons from the three years before May 2nd, 1986, she’s the closest physical match I’ve found, a view shared on forums like Websleuths. She’s worth investigating.

Qualitatively, they align well. Shoupe was 30 when she disappeared, making her 32 by May 2nd, 1986—fitting my proposed age range. Both had brown hair and brown eyes, with no scars or tattoos noted. Their heights are off by just an inch but weight is the challenge: Shoupe was 120–130 pounds, while the Jane Doe was estimated at 170 pounds. That 40–50-pound gap is notable, but weight can shift over two years.

Furthermore, I previously contacted a relative of Victoria Shoupe's via Facebook about a potential match with the Springhill Jane Doe. The relative, after reviewing the Jane Doe’s post-mortem photo, felt they weren’t the same person. No further progress has been reported on this angle as of now.

DNA and Dental Records: The Key to Solving This Case?

DNA and dental records could settle this. The Jane Doe’s DNA is in her NamUs profile, but Shoupe’s isn’t in her entry, so no automatic rule-out exists. Shoupe’s dental info is listed as "to be entered later"—still pending as of March 16th, 2025. The Jane Doe’s dental records are ready, so entering Shoupe’s could confirm or exclude her fast. I’d urge authorities to prioritize this.

NamUs MP #8386 (Gary Mullinax) vs. NamUs UP #14560

This article is about how an annoying, nitpicky, and miniature detail can actually rule a John Doe out as a missing person even when everything else seems to line up nicely. First, I will present background information about two cases: NamUs' Missing Person (MP) #8386, one Gary Mullinax, and NamUs' UP #14560. I will reference a forum post I read at Websleuths.com and credit username Biscuits222 with making the comment that originally made me look at the MP and UP (unidentified person) cases mentioned above. Please read the information in the screenshot below (my username is UncoolNegated).

Gary Mullinax looked like this:

Screenshot from his Doenetwork page. Commonly used photos in his missing-person case.

He went missing on May 9th, 1976 from Little Rock, Arkansas. On the exact same day a man was found dead in nearby Kentucky. That man's corpse produced the following composite sketch:

Those that have experience with trying to match photos of missing people to unidentified remains will surely call it an imperfect science. Anything ballpark is worth taking a look at. In this case the mustache matches and so do aspects of the face around the eyes in my opinion. The hairstyle doesn't match too well due to lengths around the ear, but hairstyles can change. Other details match-up as well. That the MP went missing the same day the UP was found is uncanny given that they look alike. The distance between the last-known location of the MP and the location of the dead man is about 500 miles, a distance that doesn't cause a rule out but certainly casts some doubt in my view.

There is one other very interesting connection, one that was made by the websleuth and is worth discussing with reference to NamUs medical information on the subject or subjects. The MP's "Jaw had been broken at one time and wired shut for weeks from a car wreck" (NamUs). The UP is described as such "Fracture of Madible - 'Examination of the X-rays of mandible reveal an apparent old well healed fracture near ramus on left side.'" <sic; "Madible" should be mandible>

So we have  missing person, who had a broken jaw, that went missing on May 9th, 1976. Meanwhile we have freshly-dead unidentified remains with an affiliated composite sketch that looks like the missing person, the UP had a broken jaw in life, and he was found the day the MP went missing.

Other important details that lineup: 

1. The UP had been dead for up to one day. 
2. The UP's age range of 18-22 matches the MP's age of 21.
3. The MP's weight range of 130 to 160 matches the UP's estimated weight of 150.
4. The MP's height range of 64 to 69 inches matches the UP's measured height of 67 inches.
5. The skin color matches.

The hair color between the two does not match as the MP had brown hair and the UP had auburn hair. Hair color is tricky in my opinion, however. If we were talking about blonde vs. black then it would be a complete rule out for sure. In this case, it's just a counterpoint that is outweighed by everything else. 

Another thing to note is that someone described Gary Mullinax to the police that wasn't too familiar with the finer details of his appearance. Whoever provided Gary Mullinax's description didn't know him well enough to place his height to within a couple inches. There's a big difference between someone that is 5'4" and someone that is 5'9". 

Am I making an argument that the MP and UP are the same person? If they are it would entail that the information with this case is wrong. Check out the information below and note the time that is associated with each case ("Date last scene" vs. "Date found").

The time for Mullinax's last-seen time is 20:13 (ie. 8:13pm) on May 9th. The dead man that seems like Mullinax in almost every way, including having a broken jaw, can't actually be Mullinax if the time of the body being found is correct and the time of Mullinax's disappearance is correct. Mullinax, according to the time noted in his NamUs file, was last seen about 3.5 hours after the UP was discovered. If those times are correct then it's a rule out by logical deduction. 

Of course the problem with logical deduction is that you might be working with false premises: clerical errors do happen. I've personally submitted several corrections to NamUs in the past that were ascertainable from news clippings. However, once you start dealing with possible errors then your connection starts to lose momentum. I will, however, email the authorities for more information just to make sure.

Article below:

The article below indicates that the body in Bullitt County may have been there for about three days.

The Courier-Journal May 14th, 1976 Page D3

NamUs MP #20751 (Connie Gregory) vs. NamUs UP #6710

By: Shane Lambert

I looked at NamUS today and decided to focus on the year 1980 in hopes of cross-referencing some missing people from that year with unidentified remains from about the same time. The first case I looked at was a missing person named Connie Gregory (NamUs MP #20751) and the chance that she might be NamUs UP #6710. The following is my argument that Connie Gregory should be a candidate for a rule-out attempt for the unidentified person.

Connie Gregory, MP #20751

Facts that imply a match:

1. MP (missing person) #20751 Connie Gregory is not listed as a rule-out for UP (unidentified person) #6710 at the time of writing. That means that no one has looked at the two or someone has looked and couldn't rule the two out as one and the same person.
2. Connie Gregory was last seen on January 23rd, 1980 at 17:20 in Breckinridge, Kentucky. The UP was found on May 26th, 1980 in Boone County, Kentucky. The timeline does not eliminate the possibility of a match. The UP has an estimated date of death for 1980. The body is described as "Not recognizable - Decomposing/putrefaction."
3. The distance between Breckinridge County and Boone County is ~162 miles in the same state of Kentucky. The UP was found in the Ohio River, a river that also runs near Breckinridge County.
4. Connie Gregory was white. The UP was also white.
5. The MP and the UP have very close height and weight estimations/measurements. Connie Gregory was 60 inches and 120 pounds. The UP was believed to be 62 inches and 123 pounds.
6. Connie Gregory was 30 years old when she went missing. The UP has a large age range (25-40), but it would still include a 30-year-old.
7. Hair color of Connie Gregory matches the UP. Brown hair on both. Brown eyes on both.

Facts that don't imply a match:

1. The UP has a postmortem interval listed as "Days." If one expects that the MP died close to the date that she went missing then the expected postmortem period would be months as opposed to "Days." This still doesn't eliminate Connie Gregory as a potential match. The UP was in a decomposed state. 
2. The UP had a "3/4" horizontally-oriented scar on left knee." The MP has no such description. 
3. The MP had "Mole on left side of neck" while the UP is not described as having such. Like point two, the description of Connie might simply be incomplete.

Conclusion:

If we assume Connie Gregory is deceased then there is a question of when she died. If she died quickly after going missing and the UP's postmortem interval of "Days" is correct then they are not one and the same. However, the facts regarding Gregory's date of death aren't known as her "date gone missing" can't be assumed to be the same as a date of death. 

The scar on the UP and the mole on the MP not matching one another are points that cast doubt as well. Moles can come and go, however, while a scar can be missed in an MP report. 

The gravity of the "Facts that imply a match" are compelling enough even when measured against the "Facts that don't imply a match." 

1. The MP and the UP are of the same race/sex.
2. The timing doesn't eliminate them.
3. The MP went missing in Kentucky and the UP was found in Kentucky.
4. The physical conditions of hair color, eye color, height, and weight all match up to a very close degree (height/weight slightly off, UP's hair also described as black).
5. The age range of the UP matches the age of the MP. 

I think that it compels a look at the two as possibly one and the same person.