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Dead man’s identity could take weeks to determine

Jane Stebbins

FRISCO – It will be at least 10 weeks before the county coroner can obtain military records to confirm the identity of a man found dead in his tent behind the County Commons near Frisco May 19.

And it could be even longer before they can notify his next of kin.

Two men discovered the man’s body while walking about 200 feet north of the bike path. An autopsy revealed that the man died of coronary artery disease. His badly decomposed body had been in the tent since around August. Officials believe he was 47 years old.



Coroner Joanne Richardson said the only piece of identifying information was an Army identification card the man had in his wallet.

That makes her “90 percent sure” of his identity, but she said she won’t release the man’s name until she can positively identify the man and then locate his relatives to notify them of his death.



Richardson said the man recently visited a Veterans Administration hospital, but when she tried to retrieve his records, hospital employees said they’d purged the computer information, and it was only available on hard copy.

Until an archivist can locate those records, Richardson will try to track down the man’s family by his Social Security number, which sometimes can help determine where a person was born.

“At this point, if I can find out where he was born, that would be a big help,” Richardson said. “This is a case that could be easy, but it’s not.”

Jane Stebbins can be reached at (970) 668-3998 ext. 228 or jstebbins@summitdaily.com.


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