DeKalb County John Doe was a young man found deceased in Alabama in 1991. His cause of death was stated as a suicide by hanging.
Case
The victim was discovered by hunters, half-decomposed and half-skeletonized, hanging on a tree. No IDs were found with the remains.
Earlier in September 1991, an abandoned car with North Dakota license plate was discovered nearby; after the victim's corpse was found, officers found several items inside the car, including a Pizza Hut receipt from August 1991, a piece of paper with the phone number of St. Benedictine's Abbey, and two birth certificates from Washington State, one blank, the other in the name of a "Damon Hunter". Another thing found was a note full of threats suggesting that the author may have been a criminal involved in a robbery.
The investigators were able to confirm that the car had indeed been bought under the name "Damon Hunter"; it was also stated that this same individual paid for some nights during August 1991 at the Hotel Donaldson in Fargo, North Dakota.
Later, police received the information that a white young male called St. Benedictine's Abbey during the late summer of 1991 and informed about his financial problems, debts and threats he and his family received. He also claimed that he was considering robbery in order to pay his debts.
Despite the leads, police were never able to identify the body as Damon Hunter or confirm this in any way.