Dan T. Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 So two kids were killed in the crash of a VW microbus on Route 58 Emporia, Virginia on June 26, 1995. The driver, Michael Hager, 21, was identified. His passenger never was. Hager's family didn't know the deceased. Both were apparent Grateful Dead fans, and authorities speculate that the driver picked up the passenger as a hitchhiker.The unidentified young man was dubbed "Grateful Doe." He had long blond hair, was wearing a Grateful Dead T-shirt, had ticket stubs in his pocket from two Grateful Dead concerts at RFK Stadium in DC, one of which was June 25, 1995 - the day before he was killed. Neither was wearing a seatbelt, so they suffered traumatic injuries when the van hit a tree and they smashed through the windshield and into the tree. In 2012 the Virginia State Police developed computer restorations of the unidentified kid's face. One month ago, after 20 years, someone made a post on Imgur a month ago regarding the cold case,http://imgur.com/gallery/qW4IIApIt soon drew a lot of interest. And then things moved quickly. Someone contacted the poster and said he thought that he knew Grateful Doe was a kid named Jason who he roomed with for a short time in Illinois in 1994-95. (One other thing found in the deceased's pocket was a note to "Jason" from "Caroline T. and Caroline O." - "Hey Jason, sorry we had to go see ya around call me #914-xxxx." seen in the bottom right above.) He didn't remember Jason's last name. He recalled that he was from Myrtle Beach Couth Carolina, and remembered him as a warm, friendly "hippie type" 17 years old who made friends easily. Another guy from that time in Illinois sent a photo of Jason: The original poster sent pleas out for anybody that recognized the kid in these new pictures. http://imgur.com/gallery/vfXjr Then, on January 19, it got weird. A 63-year-old Myrtle Beach woman filed a missing persons report on her son, named Jason Callahan, whom she hadn't heard from since June 1995. He had left home to follow the Grateful Dead, she said. It's not clear why she waited so long to file a missing persons report. http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2015/01/14/4726665_myrtle-beach-police-investigate.html?sp=/99/209/&rh=1Authorities are now conducting DNA tests to see if Grateful Doe is indeed the son of the 63 year old Myrtle Beach woman.Hooray Internet for - apparently - solving this 20 year old mystery. Wiki has a good summary of the case:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensville_County_John_Doe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rictus58 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 weird. I was just browsing r/unexplainedphotos and was reading the post not even 1 minute ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 I want to hear more about why the woman apparently waited so long to try to find her son. Or maybe she did, and we haven't heard about it. Odd, though, that she would wait 20 years before filing a report. And I suspect the filing was spurred when either she saw or someone contacted her about the reddit/imgur postings... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Oh, and it must be Jason Callahan, right? DNA will confirm, but way too many things line up for it not to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rictus58 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I want to hear more about why the woman apparently waited so long to try to find her son. Or maybe she did, and we haven't heard about it. Odd, though, that she would wait 20 years before filing a report. And I suspect the filing was spurred when either she saw or someone contacted her about the reddit/imgur postings... I read somewhere earlier today the detective in her jurisdiction said she didn't know which jurisdiction to file the missing persons report. Which seems odd to me. I'd be calling everyone if it were my kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bliz Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Sure seems like a good candidate. I remember reading about this story years ago. Would be nice to see it solved and at least give the mom some closure. I was at that June 25, 1995 show at RFK. My first Dead concert, when I was 17. Dylan opened. Garcia died less than 2 months later. Was trying to remember if I heard about this accident at the time, or only years later. Can't recall. Glad I got to see it, but I wasn't really ready. I was still relatively new to the music, and had mostly listened to studio albums. Wish I could have seen it after I had a better appreciation for the live stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balki1867 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I want to hear more about why the woman apparently waited so long to try to find her son. Or maybe she did, and we haven't heard about it. My first thought too. My only hypothesis is that the woman and her son had a falling out back in 1995 so she never even knew he was 'missing'-- just that he'd stopped contacting her. Then she must've caught wind about this incident (maybe someone who knew him contacted her?) and found out that she had to go through the proper legal process (missing persons report, etc), to get closure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.