St. Albans John Doe was a man whose skeletal remains were located near St. Albans, New South Wales on 19 August 1976.
Case[]
Three men fishing discovered the victim in bushland of the MacDonald River near Wrights Creek Road. They initially found a large bone between the roadway and the eastern bank of the river, as well as a skull and other bones under bracken fern in a shallow gully that forms a waterway into the river.
Detectives arrived at the scene and found the rest of the partially complete skeleton and decomposed clothing within an area of about five meters and 16 kilometers north of Wisemans Ferry. No fractures or any other evidence to indicate a cause of death were evident at the time. The skull's upper teeth were intact, but the lower jaw was badly decomposed. Testimony from local Aboriginals indicated that they had smelled a stench in the area since January 1976 but believed it to be a dead animal as they are sometimes found alongside the road. The original investigator's notes are now lost, but it is thought they did not receive any further information.
A week after the victim's discovery, his remains were sent to the Department of Forensic Medicine, Glebe, then known as the City Morgue, Glebe. An external examination by Dr Oattle determined that the victim was an Aboriginal male and that the time of death was up to a year based on little tissue to the left side of the head. His cause and manner of death could not be determined. Due to environmental changes and river metamorphosis during the period, it is possible that the victim died in a different spot, and the remains were subsequently moved by a third party, scavengers, or by the flow of the river.
A DNA sample was obtained and uploaded to state and national databases with no matches. Of the three possibilities of people who went missing in the St. Albans area at the time and before the victim was located, all were ruled out by DNA testing.
In June 2009, the Australian Museum sought an expert skeleton analysis so the correct Aboriginal community could take custody of the remains. However, the study performed by Emeritus Professor of Archaeology Richard Wright suggested the victim was more likely mixed and predominantly of European ancestry. A 2013 examination by Dr. Donlon at the University of Sydney suggested that the victim may have been buried in a shallow grave or covered in muddy soil for a time and that he may have been of mixed ancestry, possibly European and either African or Aboriginal.
In 2019, a bone sample was subjected to radiocarbon age determination at Waikato University in New Zealand, and it was dated back to the 1960s. This indicates that the victim had died between 1960 and 1976.
Clothing[]
- Woolen garment, possibly a cardigan.
- Men's shorts.