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Not to be confused with Daniel Diaz Reyes

Daniel S. Diaz was a young man found murdered in 2003 in Indiana. He was seen alive in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, two days before.

He was identified in 2022.

Background[]

Diaz was born on September 18, 1977. At the time of his death, Diaz was living in Columbus, Ohio. His family had not seen or heard from Diaz for over 20 years and believed that he had cut all contact with them.

Case[]

On October 2nd, 2003, detectives Jerry Cason and Frank Hittel of the Indianapolis Police Department were escorting a prisoner around Henry County, in an attempt to gain information about crimes he had committed. The prisoner asked to use the restroom and the detectives pulled into an abandoned gas station located off I-70 on Indiana Route 109, where as they were taking a break, one of the individuals discovered a deceased male lying in the back of the gas station.

An autopsy was performed in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The deceased had been shot in the head and it was determined he had been at this location for less than 24 hours. The death was ruled a homicide. Shortly after, photos of the decedent were taken in an attempt to identify him through the media but to no avail. The detectives who had found the body surrendered their service weapons to Henry County officials as protocol to ensure that the officers were not involved in the murder.

Investigation[]

During the initial investigation, investigators found out that the decedent may have had a connection with the city of Reynoldsburg, Ohio; as he was seen two days before his discovery at the local Walmart making a purchase. Additionally, he was seen driving a red car. Investigators have not specified what kind of car he was driving, nor made public any evidence that he was at the Walmart.

NCMEC took on the case in 2012, and provided the above information to their bulletin as well as an updated reconstruction of the victim. Prior to this, only postmortem photographs were available to the public for identification purposes.

Characteristics[]

The man was described as a Hispanic male (though an earlier newspaper report identified him as a black male) between the ages of 17-30, about 5'2 and weighed roughly 108 pounds. His jaw had been wired shut and his teeth showed evidence of old brace brackets from previous orthodontic work. It is possible that he had previously tried to remove some brackets himself. He also had a small mole on his upper right shoulder and one on his lower back.

Clothing and accessories[]

  • A blue "Malone USA" sweatshirt
  • Brown work pants with "UConn" warm-up sweatpants over the pants
  • White Reebok sneakers
  • White socks
  • White Duke baseball cap

Sources[]

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