Unidentified Wiki
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"Sandie" was the nickname given to a man whose cremated remains were given to an EMT who tried to revive him after being hit by a car in Dallas County, Iowa.

He is undergoing testing by Redgrave Research.

Case[]

On the evening of October 19, 1987, EMT Joseph Bray of the Dallas County Ambulance Service received a call of a car/pedestrian accident east of the Van Meter exit on the westbound lane on I-80. There, he noticed the car of his son, Ron, parked alongside the roadway, having witnessed the accident and pulled over to provide aid. The driver who had hit the man said he appeared to be trying to flag someone down to help him. It is reported that a person had seen the man earlier that afternoon hitchhiking near 74th Street (aka Jordan Creek Parkway) in West Des Moines. Investigators found no personal belongings that could lead to the man's identity. Four months after the autopsy was conducted, the man's body was cremated. The location of the police report and autopsy results are unknown.

Due to personal reasons, Joseph Bray had asked the coroner to grant him and his family possession of the man's cremains. The family nicknamed the man "Sandie" due to his sandy red hair. The cremains stayed in the family's possession until they moved out of state in 2011, where they were returned to remain in Iowa, along with a letter that detailed the case as well as their connection to it. The man's urn was later discovered by a funeral director among other unlabeled, unclaimed, and unidentified cremains. She, along with the Dallas County Medical Examiner's office, collaborated with Redgrave Research in an attempt to identify the man. Despite the difficulties with extracting DNA from cremains, researchers managed to find a tooth root that may be suitable for extraction and sequencing to develop a usable DNA profile.

Characteristics[]

  • Slender build.
  • Reddish-brown hair.
  • Blue eyes.

Clothing and accessories[]

  • Black shoes.
  • Grey pants.
  • Button-down shirt.
  • Blue sweater.

Sources[]

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