The Boy in the Wool Jacket: What was the name of the boy found in a grave in Quinton Township in 1979?
On June 2, 1979, the body of a teenage male was found in a shallow grave in a wooded area off of Jericho Road in Quinton Township, New Jersey. No report that I have found indicates who found him or how the grave was uncovered; possibly the changes in season revealed something that lead to the area being dug up.
It was later estimated that he had been killed sometime in late 1978 or early 1979. Certainly his clothing indicated he was dressed for cold weather: he was found wearing a dark blue waist length wool coat, a black and white heavy knit v-neck Michelangelo sweater, a cotton poppy pattern t-shirt with Indian designs or made in India, brief-style underwear, white painter’s pants, and black Pro-Ked sneakers. Both jacket pockets had embroidered designs in gold thread - the left pocket a small cross, and the right pocket the letter “R.” He wore a yellow metal necklace with a 17 inch spiral twist chain and a gray metal necklace with a gray metal horn ornament. He was apparently a smoker, as a pack of Marlboro cigarettes were found with him as well as a book of matches with “Tolz Realty Co” written in gold on them. Someone had written on the cigarette pack: one side had “Meth” and “Weed” and the other had “Pot” and “Joints.”
Despite the badly decomposed state of the remains, law enforcement was able to get a partial print from the left ring finger. A full dental chart and a DNA sample are also available. It’s estimated he was anywhere from sixteen to twenty-two years old. No obvious cause of death was found, but since he was buried, it’s assumed to be a homicide.
It’s been 42 years since he was found. Who was he?
A few things immediately stand out to me about this case. First of all is the fingerprint. Even one being intact is unusual for remains buried that long. So if I had to estimate a time of death, I’d put it in early 1979. January, February, even March. The second is that he doesn’t seem to be a runaway or someone who’s been living on the streets for an extended period of time. His clothes are of reasonably good quality, which makes me think he was from a fairly ordinary middle class home. It’s possible that he only had been on the streets for a very short period of time, and still had good clothing from home, but less likely.
Was he killed at the scene? It’s hard to tell, but the location he was found in is even to this day in the middle of the woods, with nothing nearby but some state parkland. If you wanted to kill someone, it’s easy to go there and not get caught. But it’s equally likely that it just happened to be remote enough to bury a person you killed elsewhere. There isn’t anything that can easily point towards a motive for killing, either: picked up by the wrong person hitchhiking, argument with friend or other person close to him that went lethal, even randomly grabbed by someone.
I also searched for the realtors on the matchbook, and to my surprise I got what is certainly the same business. They were founded in 1970 and are located in Cape May, New Jersey. Cape May is about an hour and a half away from the burial site. It’s a popular sea resort town. Did the victim vacation there or live there? I’m inclined to think he either lived there or visited there on a regular basis; the matchbook was full and I doubt someone would have kept unused matches that long if they were a smoker. (It’s still possible the victim didn’t smoke and was carrying them for someone else, but that’s once again much less likely.) The matches themselves indicate he either knew someone at the realtors, worked there himself, or just knew they were a place you could occasionally score free matches from. All that indicates he knew the area.
I think it’s possible he was living on his own at the time. Not on a runaway basis, off the books, but that he held a real job and lived in his own place. No one would be looking for him if he didn’t show up one night.
Is there a missing persons’ report for him? It’s quite possible one is sitting in some drawer in a police station somewhere, gathering dust. Someone of his age going missing wasn’t considered a big deal back then, and if they took a report at all it might have been forgotten right away.
With all the information available to identify him with, it should be easy if the right person sees the case. Are you that person?