73°
The case dates to July 27, 1973, when a boater found the body of a white man floating face down next to the docks of the Rex Yacht Club on Beach Road. That waterway, known as Charles Creek, is across from what was then called the “new” Marvin School.
The body had been in the water for four to seven days so facial identification was not possible, police said. And only partial fingerprints were able to be collected, police said.
In 1973, there was no automated fingerprint identification system database to be searched, so only known comparisons could be examined, police said. In addition, DNA was not an option and the dental record was placed in the file.
The man was described as 30 to 35 years old; 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-11; and weighting 175 pounds, with reddish brown hair and a mustache.
When found, he was wearing size medium gray Levi’s, a cranberry slipover shirt with a V-neck with buttons, and Fruit of the Loom size 30 underwear, police said. Two days later, a pair of suede shoes with brown and yellow laces were found floating near the docks, police said.
No missing persons at the time matched the description of the man found.
In July 2011, Lt. Art Weisgerber enlisted the help of Dr. Adam Freeman of Westport, a forensic odontologist, to view the 1973 dental chart completed during the autopsy. Freeman coded the dental chart for upload into the system for comparison against dental records of missing persons. No matches have been made.
In September 2011, a request was made to the FBI Latent Print Unit to pull the 1973 partial fingerprints from their archives and run them through the system to look for a match. No match was found. In September 2014, this same request was made after the FBI upgraded its system to include military and government employee files. Again, no match was found.
Anybody with information on the man is asked to contact Lt. Weisgerber at 203-854-3028 or aweisgerber@norwalkct.org. Anonymous Internet tips can be sent through the Norwalk police website at: www.norwalkpd.com. Anonymous text tips can be submitted by typing “NPD” into the text field, followed by the message and sending it to CRIMES (274637).
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