Sonoma County John Doe was a man who died of a morphine overdose in Cloverdale, California in 1880.
Case[]
The victim was found in the old barn of Livermore Mine, which is about six miles from Cloverdale, in the afternoon of March 13, 1880. The next morning, acting coroner Squire Morgan and several other citizens went to the barn and observed that the victim had been dead for several days, dressed "plainly", and had nothing to indicate identification or residence.
A week before the victim was found, a man who resembled the victim bought morphine from Dr. Markell's drugstore in Cloverdale. The man claimed to have contracted neuralgia while working in the mercury mine and wanted to use the morphine to relive his pain. It is then believed the man, if he is the victim, went to the barn to spend the night and took the morphine, only to accidentally overdose.
The victim was buried in Lot 415 of the Cloverdale Cemetery in Cloverdale on March 14, 1880. Although there is no stone or marker within the plot, cemetery records confirm the victim was buried there.