After exhausting all leads, police and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are seeking the public’s help in identifying human remains recovered from the water near the seaplane ramp on Ford Island in October 2005.
Phil Camero, an NCIS investigator, said Monday the person may have been a homeless man.
Camero said an analysis of the remains by the Joint POW/MIA Command at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam found that the partially clothed remains uncovered by Navy divers Oct. 25, 2005, are those of a Caucasian male, about 34 to 64 years old, with a predicted age of 45. He was 5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet tall.
The male had an injured left knee and may have walked with a limp, Camero said. The victim also suffered from arthritis in his right shoulder.
Evidence showed that the male died on land before he was immersed in water several days later, Camero said.
Camero said the victim’s description does not match anyone in the Honolulu Police Department’s missing-persons files.
Because the body was so badly decomposed, there has been no determination of the cause of death, Camero added.
Camero said that even with the help of the FBI, the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command’s laboratory, the University of Texas, the city Medical Examiner’s Office, Honolulu police and the state attorney general’s office, "all avenues have been exhausted, and we are asking for the public’s help."
The police and NCIS also released photos of the victim’s jeans (waist 40 inches, length 32 inches), gold-colored Timex watch and sandals in the hope that "someone might recognize them," Camero said.
Camero said Navy divers also searched the waters off Ford Island and that DNA samples of the victim were sent to the National Unidentified Persons Data System.
The body was spotted by a Navy contractor working on Ford Island. A Navy diver pulled it from the water.
The body was taken to Ford Island by NCIS and then turned over to the Medical Examiner’s Office.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300, or *CRIME on a cellphone.
