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Faxaskjól John Doe was a man whose skeletal remains were found buried in the village of Faxaskjól, Iceland in 1975. Every single missing person at the time of the decedent's discovery has been ruled out.
Case[]
On 30 March 1975, a group of children aged 11-15 were playing outside the village of Faxaskjól, Iceland. While outside, they began digging to build a makeshift playhouse when they discovered two bones they believed to be human thighs and went to their parents. Their parents reassured them that the bones were likely animals. Due to this error, the decedent wouldn't be fully discovered until 7 July when the children played in the same area. One of them remembered the bones and started digging, which was when a sock, jaw and feet bones were discovered.
The police were criticized for their poor handling of the investigation. The police were only on-site for 2 hours and did not call in any professionals to excavate the ground. Instead, the police failed to close off the crime scene and encouraged the children to play in the area in hopes that they'd uncover more of the decedent's bones. Based on the circumstances of the decedent's discovery, the case was ruled a homicide. The police asked local residents if they had seen anything suspicious, but were unable to come up with any leads. The police then left without recovering all the decedent's bones and said they wouldn't return unless new evidence was discovered.
As a result of heavy criticism and ridicule, the police returned on 9 July after more bones and 45-calibre bullets were found. This time, the police cordoned off the crime scene and conducted a full-scale investigation and excavation. The police unearthed the entire skeleton which had been buried in a concrete tube. The skeleton was complete with the exception of some bottom teeth. As for belongings, the only items found at the scene were a single sock worn by the decedent and two 45-caliber bullets. The area the decedent was located in used to be a shooting range and military base for American and British soldiers stationed in Iceland during World War II. Because of this, the bullets were ruled to be unrelated. The military base was demolished in 1951 and residential housing was constructed in 1954. Due to this fact, the police believed that the decedent died between 1951-1954.
The police questioned local residents for a second time and were told that between 1952-1955, there was a 70-80 cm high mound of dirt next to the pit the body was buried in. This was dismissed at the time since they thought it was construction work. According to records, the city of Reykjavik didn't do any work in the area until 1967.
The skeleton was sent to the University of Iceland in Reykjavik where two professors performed the post-mortem. They determined that the skeleton was a male, 40 years of age when he died, and had been deceased for around 21-24 years. Based on his jaw and teeth, he likely had trouble chewing food. He also had no hair or nails and was 170-173 cm tall. They also concluded that he had likely been killed elsewhere and then buried since the soil samples showed no signs of decay and there were no stains on the concrete tube he was found in. No cause of death was established, but foul play is still suspected. His dental records didn't match anyone in Iceland.
Only 4 missing men in Iceland matched the post-mortem interval of the decedent, but they were all ruled out since their deaths were likely drownings. Police expanded the search to include those before and after the 1950s. Their main theory was the skeleton belonged to Sveinbjörn Jakobsson, who went missing in 1930 and was the first disappearance in the country to be investigated as a murder. Sveinbjörn was later ruled out after his relatives explained that he had false teeth, unlike the decedent. Police would later rule out everyone in Iceland who went missing before the decedent's discovery.
Characteristics.[]
- Missing two lower teeth.
- No hair.
- No nails.
- Had trouble chewing.
Clothing and accessories.[]
- A single sock.
Sources[]
- DV: (Icelandic)
- Article #1 (1/13/2019) POSTMORTEM WARNING
- Article #2 (1/20/2019) POSTMORTEM WARNING
- Article #3 (1/26/2019)
- Timarit: (Icelandic)
- Article #1 (9/7/1975) POSTMORTEM WARNING
- Article #2 (10/9/1975)
- Article #3 (17/7/1975)
- Mannlif (Icelandic)
- RUV (Icelandic)