The Trans Doe Task Force

In honor of Pride Month, Chris illuminates a 40-year-old case that was recently solved with the help of The Trans Doe Task Force. 

Transcript

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People just want to know what it's like to be me. How does it feel to see a dead body? Tell a family their loved one has been murdered, talk to a rape victim, catch a killer and get them to confess. Hold on tight, my friends. Get ready for the journey and welcome to murder with Mannina. Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of murder with Mannina. How's it going, Colleen? Great. I just got back from New York and I followed your advice because I was on the subway and these two hoodlum kids got on and they were fully masked. We're not talking about COVID Mask, no. Masks are wildly just the eyes. So and they had a boombox. And they had it at the loudest volume. And they were it was violent rap music, violent rap lyrics. And they were just they're shifting their eyes. And I immediately thought and I could see it made everyone uneasy. But I immediately thought of your words, when something doesn't feel right. It's not right. 100% of the time, I don't need any more evidence than this. It just doesn't feel right. And my first thought was, why do they not want to be recognized? Right could be a reason. And I don't want to stick around, find out so I got off the subway. As soon as it stopped. I got right off. And I waited 10 minutes for the next subway train and I saw it the whole time. Your your your words were echoing in my mind. If it doesn't feel right, it's not right. Get the hell out of here. And I did follow your advice. Yeah, good. Okay, so the moral of the story is one person listens to my advice. At least I know one person. Alright, so we're gonna talk. This is an interesting, interesting kind of case. And then this task force that I didn't even know existed, and they helped solve a, a case in Indiana over over 40 years ago, but it's a trans led task force. So crazy. I had not heard anything about this. Oh, 440 years ago. Interesting. Yes. So here we go. We're going to talk about this. Okay. So by the time the police had found a young man's body, he was rotting on an on a neglected plot of farmland off the Rensselaer highway in 1983. And it appeared that he had been dead more than a year. And this is country land, we're talking. The man had been found by a hunter laying down traps for foxes. Authorities thought at first the school might belong to a monkey. And then closer examinations found a bundle of skill teeth, jaw burns, jaw, bones, femur, tennis shoe and bits of reddish hair recovered from the scene proved to be the remains of a man they thought was between 18 and 26 years old. And the police at that time believed he was a victim of homicide. So it's so funny because I had been I've been on a lot of calls where people are digging in their backyard or whatever. And they find bones, you know, they're just digging, whatever and they find some bones. And he get there and most of the time, it's animal bones. But like always call so if you're ever digging and you find bones always call because they can kind of look the same. Like I remember being on the street and I got a call and and these bones look like oh my god that had to belong to you know a person. And then we get the right authorities out there and they're like, No, it's adult. And I'm like, okay, even when you see schools, right, like it just it was crazy. So always call moral of that little comment. But yeah, sure, especially, especially with the advancements in DNA and how they can go Yeah, through DD ology. That's why it's more important than ever now. Absolutely. So unfortunately, the remains would stay locked and not necessarily examined anymore in the Jasper County Coroner's Office, and it was in there for over two decades. Okay. But a gentleman by the name of Andy Boersma took over the coroner's position in 2000. And he had inherited the case of a young man whose identity you had haunted three corners before him. The case remains unsolved. But he was unsatisfied. I liked this guy. He was just not taking no for an answer. He was quoted as saying I just wasn't about to leave this kid laying in a box in the evidence room without trying to put forth some effort to locate his family and return his remains. Somebody out there is looking for their son and somebody has to take the initiative. I love that right. So he reopened the case and for the next 20 years he would pour through evidence about any chance so he got okay was doing his job as a corner but he was still working on this. A thick binder containing case information was hauled into his truck on fishing trips, his spare time was spent going through Namus, which is the National Resource Center for missing an unclaimed persons records hoping to find a match. He said he's quoted as saying everything sat at a standstill, other than what identified markers we had, which was cricket teeth and the jaw, a silver crown or cap, that stuff was entered into the database that the state police in the FBI had but none of the family had entered anything like that in his missing persons report. Without the resources or full investigative unit, which is so common. Giving the young John Doe his identity back was workforce man and his wife mostly took on alone. So he got his wife to help him. Interesting and his wife I like that. Yeah. Somewhere he felt a family who did not know was mourning the loss of this young man. He wanted to piece it together and pester any law enforcement agency that could make an identification. So this was like a 1983. And then like in 2000, where, you know, the coroner's, you don't hear of the coroner's doing that a lot anymore about investigating cases, they'll come out. They'll kind of tell you that, you know, initially what the cause of death is and take the body. Alright, so somewhere he felt that the family needed closure. Some of the state police officers and some of the county sheriff deputies know that I'm a pain in the ass. And I don't let sleeping dogs lie. I got the kick. I got to kick the can every now and then. I love that such an old term in homicide kick the can be for that before Right. Right. Right. Right. It means progress. Yeah, I use the snowball effect, right? You start a snowball and you keep rolling it gets bigger, but yeah, kick the can. Okay, so an intern who worked at a trans led forensic genealogy nonprofit based in Massachusetts called the trans doe Task Force. They specialize in finding and research in cases of the LGBTQ plus missing and murdered people to make positive identifications. And we're interested in assisting with the Jasper County John Doe case. He had been worked at they had been doing for years as part of the DNA doh project before branching off to create a unit dedicated to identify missing people in the LGBTQ community with a specific victim victim or I'm sorry, specific focus on victims who may have been trans never even heard about this. And it's so crazy because we're talking like a long time ago, right? It's it's not greatly accepted. Exactly. That's the most impressive part of it to me, right. So cared that long ago. Yeah, make a special unit for it. So there they said while we're working with them doing genealogy, we asked each other could we find trans cases? Could we be able to go out in our community through this work that we're already doing? And we thought maybe we could find a couple cases. And now we found about 175 Anthony Redgrave is the for forensic genealogist who helped found the nonprofit and it's only been going on since 2018. The team leverages the science of genealogy to solve decade old cases using family genetics to piece together mysteries. Here we go. With that genealogy law. It's the same technologies that was used to identify the Golden State killer. And locally what Indiana detectives used to identify the so called i 65. Killer as Harry Edwards Greenwell right in Ohio, right. Was that? Oh, absolutely. Okay. Yep. And he was killing girls at truckstops. prostitutes. Yeah. So that's Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so instead of having the information from an adoptee of their birth date, and roughly where they were born, what we have instead is information from anthropologists that gives us post mortem interval and age estimate, which gives us a broad range of how old the person might be. I love that they're using so many people Oh, so they assist law enforcement departments medical examiner's and forensic anthropologists with getting their cases worked on by forensic genetic. Geologists, geologists, okay. So they say they can't really overstate the importance of the grassroots work that they do. They are like a complete workhorse and they actually get things done. A biological anthropologist at of New Hampshire, who assists the task force that's what she said about them. Their team also established a lamp l a MP database a free service which allows people to submit case information about missing people who may have been LGBTQ or whose case requires requires LGBTQ informed care and consideration a It's fantastic from the stars. In this case, the Jasper County John Doe, was a speck on the map. Although they couldn't know for sure whether the young man belonged to the LGBTQ community, there was one brutal fact about the case that motivated the trans doe task force to take it on. While the Jasper County John Doe's identity remained a mystery, his killer was well known. Here we go. The many crimes of Larry Isler between 82 and 84, Larry Isler terrorized the large swaths of the Midwest he was dubbed as the highway killer. He'd pick up transient people or people who were hitchhiking, he would drug them and offer to do other things, and then he would murder them. In 1994, Eyler was dying in prison ahead of a scheduled execution for the death of a 15 year old boy. He made a deathbed confession to the lawyer revealing a list of at least 20 men who had killed over the years. And I think it's so interesting, because that happens. That seems to happen a lot. And then you have some serial killers that even on their deathbed, they're not telling you or even right before execution is so crazy. So most of these victims were part of the LGBTQ community. It was a horrific tendency of preying on gay men almost exclusively that was enough to motivate the transpo Task Force to help solve the Jasper County John Doe case. They said they had been aware were of Larry Eyler and his unidentified victims for a long time and we'd been wondering, why haven't these been worked on? That's the great thing about it. I love it. When people start to ask questions, they find out there's not a lot of answers and they just start doing it right. They just form their own task force and they just freakin start doing it. So Eiyer did admit to picking up young man in 1982 along US 41 near Vincenz in southwestern Indiana, and he admitted to killing him than dumping his body about 70 miles south of Chicago. Whether Eiler actually knew the Jasper County John Doe's identity or not still remains a mystery, he was going to take that one to his grave. If the young men had indeed been a member of the LGBTQ community in life, he would have been murdered during a time when career people were not always accepted by the broader community, or even in their own families. still dealing with that issue today, as we know, an editor in chief at the World Magazine, one of India's only LGBTQ magazine in the early 80s. It was at the time when multiple young men from the queer community went missing and then turned up murder. There was that was sometimes at the hands of Larry Eiler, whose total victim count in Indiana remains uncertain. People preyed on the fact that a lot of these people had nobody at home looking to see where they were, if they were if they disappeared, it would be weeks, and weeks or longer before anybody would say they were missing. And we talked about that a lot was runaways, right, or prostitutes? And now of course, we're hitting this this part of the community which man talk about like, right, if there are in this is the 80s. Right. Wow. Right. It's just yeah, it's just so the transpo task for knows when they take on cases of homicide victims in this community, they may be the only ones looking for them. With regular John or Joe, regular John or Jane Doe case, you can say to yourself, oh, this person might have family who's looking for them. With LGBTQ cases, you don't have that guarantee, because sometimes people specifically have left because a family didn't support them. And other people are going to be looking for them and the people who have no rights, okay. So, the same year, they took up the Jasper County, John Doe case, the Human Rights Campaign group revealed that there had been a record 57 known murders of transgender people the most since 2013. Despite the continued prevalence of violence against trans and queer people in the US, the task force remains one of the only agencies that can apply a queer lens to cases that need them. You It's so crazy, I've never heard of this. No. Have you ever heard of this? No, I have not. So I'm so happy to hear of it. As members of the community, we're pretty much constantly aware of the fact that we're not that far removed from being in that position we could at any turn in our life have ended up in the same place because that's what the world has done to us. Taskforce members take great care to ensure mistakes made by other law enforcement or investigative agencies, dead naming or misgendering victims that can cause further harm to that person does not happen. And right how timely is that when we're in this world now where gender has become a big issue and you know, sex changes and all these things that are happening? How crazy will that be if you go missing, because you could have been missing and identified as a woman? Oh my gosh. Right, right. I mean, it's just mind boggling. But when they know from the bone structure if a surgery had happened or not, well, you would hope Yeah, you would hope so. But it would still but you have to have people that are willing to do it. Right. And we're willing to look at it and and hope you know, and it's the thing with these task forces is that like they're third doing the work of people that aren't even asking for the work to be done. Right. Like do you always say if there's not family advocating for an investigation, it's so often just becomes a cold case on the shelf? Yes. Yeah. It's just horrible. Okay, so as he is Burke's have lived in these bodies, and having to deal with this kind of level of violence and bias towards our people need to be the one spear handed in these initiatives. No one knows this content like we do, no matter how well meaning they are, or experienced, they are in related fields. They would take the same care with the case of the young man found in Rensselaer, right. So it's like, again, it comes back down to race and sex and how motivated the detectives are. And if there's family, that's, you know, putting pressure on the detective and the department to do something. So here we are. In January 2020. One's coroner accepted the task force help and identification of the Jasper County, John Doe. While awaiting DNA data, Anthony Redgrave was provided photos of the victim's skeletal remains to produce a second piece of forensic art that could help lead to his identification. From January to September in 2021, the victim's DNA was processed and uploaded to G D match a free DNA site built for genetic genealogy research. So that's free. That's fantastic. In just six days, the team of forensic genetic genealogists and student interns found a potential candidate. Under the direction of this corner, and his wife, team member Katie Thomas was granted permission to make contact with the candidate's family in order to obtain DNA sample and gather further information God the work ethic and motivation. Kudos to you guys. We were involved in more in a more unusual way and finishing out a case we aren't usually there. So that was very emotional experience for the team. The DNA sample collected from a full sibling of the candidate was compared to that of Jasper County, John Doe. It confirmed the two were siblings. And how great was that the task force was right there when this when it happened, his name was William Lewis. So Jasper County finally was able to call John Doe, William Lewis. A few days before Thanksgiving, and then Andy Boersma the corner and the transpo Task Force announced publicly that after so many years, a young man found nearly 40 years ago had been identified. His name again was William Bill Lewis in life. He was a quiet person who played football in high school. He was last seen by relatives in Houston, Texas in February of 1982. The 19 year old, attended a friend's funeral in Indiana and never made it back home. He would be 58 years old if he still were alive today. Wow. That's crazy. For the corner current members of the task force who worked to make the identification the announcement was not at a time for celebration or to applaud themselves through years of hard work coming to an end. When cases are closed. A somber reality is reiterated there are families like Lewis who prayed he would one day come home, but now they know for sure that he won't. However, his parents didn't live long enough to learn what happened to their son. Here's a little bit of history on the family. He was loved. A great deal. His parents looked for him until they passed and then his siblings had picked up from where the parents left off. They said, as far as I could tell, Lewis was not a part of the LGBTQ community. He was a young man caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, whose life ended on the side of the road by hands. Police had tried to track before for the transpo Task Force though it does not matter if a missing or murdered person was actually part of that community or not. As cases continued pouring in from across the country in the work expands to countries like Canada, Argentina, Finland, and live or Libya. They refuse to let these victims who may have been forgotten in life remains so in depth. There's this concept of chosen family who was taking care of these cases if they won't look for you, Lisa I definitely feel like we adopt people until we can, until we can find out where they go beautifully. That crazy icon we're in this world now, it's like I don't know of any other task force that just, you know, specializes in this community. But man, do we need it right, because as we know, in June being Pride Month, and all of that, as you know, more and more people are coming out and, and hopefully their families are okay with it. But if they're not, a lot of times, they run away, and then that's the horrible cycle, then they get into, you know, anything drugs, or they get into slavery, whatever, whatever it is, but just that whole idea of having to leave your home, and leave the people who you think love you. And then, you know, can end up being murdered or hooked on drugs or whatever. So, kudos to this task force. And that's exactly Wow, so heartwarming and uplifting to know that there's people out there who have cared for so long shout out to the trans doe Task Force. That was established in 2018. And I love their I love their quotes in there talk about look, you know, you don't have any idea what it's like to be trans or to be gay, or anything like that. So they they have people that live that lifestyle, helping to solve these murders. How fantastic is that? You know, and like they said, they're getting more and more cases, you know, you have people who, like, start these organizations, and those are the people that have an unbelievable amount of passion. And, you know, they may have no law enforcement experience, but passion and just the will to dig. And, and then they're living in that lifestyle as well. Like, I just hope that law enforcement will just learn to play a little bit well with others, because we just don't, and I think it's ego driven. And I think it's oh my god, if I give it over to the task force, they might solve it. And what does that look like? And what it looks like is that you're open to keep the main prize at the center stage, which is to solve the case, who the hell cares? who solves it? You know, like, who cares? Let's just get it solved. And, gosh, I wish that mentality of thinking because, you know, if you can pair law enforcement with community groups that live in that community, right, live in the community, or live that type of lifestyle, and you can combine those two, you really I just think that the amount of cold cases that we have in any lifestyle is so astounding, in this country. But man, if we could just get a better partnership where we work together, right? Like, that's just the key, it's just the key, we can get the soft in. So kudos again, to this to this task force. So with an Indiana, you know, connection, just had to get it out. So it's June Pride Month. So you know, kudos to everyone. That's been a part of that. Again, you guys, thanks. I'm getting more and more email messages about cases that want to be talked about. And I really do appreciate that. Really positive comments. Again, like always, we always ask that you share and review and just get the word out about us. Because we're trying to get these cases out there and there's so many good people doing so much good work. Make a difference. We can make a difference. Let's make a difference. everyone and thanks again for listening and we will see you next time on murder with mannina.