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LAM820000/ Victor Barajas; Bossier City 1982
Topic Started: Jul 5 2006, 04:33 AM (437 Views)
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FC# 82-12
Date Remains Found: 1982
Location: Bossier City, LA
Profile:
Age: 24-27
Sex: male
Race: Caucasian/Am. Indian
Stature: 5'8''-5'10''
Weight: unknown
Hair Color: unknown
Remains found in landfill
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http://www.lsu.edu/faceslab/unidentified/1982.htm
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http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/in...opic=17824&st=0
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http://doenetwork.org/cases/200umla.html

Unidentified Native / White Male

Located in 1982 in Bossier City, Bossier Parrish, Louisiana.


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Vital Statistics


Estimated age: 18 - 25 years old
Approximate Height and Weight: 5'8"-5'10"
Distinguishing Characteristics: His hair and eye color are unknown.
Dentals: Available. He had no dental fillings.


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Case History
The victim was located in a landfill in Bossier Parrish, Louisiana in 1982.



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Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
FACES Lab
225-578-4761
E-Mail
mailto:faces@lsu.edu

OR
Bossier City Police Department
225-741-8611

Agency Case Number:
FC# 82-12

NCIC Number:
N/A
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.
http://www.lsu.edu/faceslab/persons/archive82.htm
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MANSFIELD — His skeletal remains have been under lock and key in an LSU lab since 1982, having been pulled from a Bossier Parish landfill in 1979.

No name. No identity other than the original case number of FA-94-79.


But all that changed late last week.

Attribute it to dumb luck, the right alignment of the stars or the eagle eye curiosity of a veteran detective, but finally — after 32 years — the remains have been identified, and a family has an answer.

The remains of Victor Barajas, a 20-year-old McAllen, Texas, resident last seen in Mansfield in December 1975, have been identified through DNA analysis. The analysis was conducted at the North Louisiana Criminalistics Laboratory in Shreveport through a contract partnership with forensic anthropologist Mary Manhein, director of the LSU Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services Lab in Baton Rouge.

The FACES Lab serves as the Louisiana Repository for Unidentified and Missing Persons Information Program. A law effective Aug. 15, 2006, requires state law enforcement agencies and coroners' offices to turn over unidentified human remains and provide information on cold and current missing persons cases. The information is being compiled into a statewide database that Manhein wants to be a model for the rest of the country.

The identification of Barajas is "phenomenal," Manhein said this week. "It shows you the power of the new database."

The Barajas case is the oldest so far identified through the combined efforts of Manhein, her staff and the crime lab.

"This is huge, huge for us and it also shows the importance of talking to the investigators who still have information or memory of these cold cases and missing person cases," Manhein said.

Barajas' DNA has been in the system, but until earlier this year, there were no samples for comparison. The remains were among three cases handed over in 1982 to Manhein, then a graduate student at LSU in Baton Rouge, from the Bossier Parish coroner's office.

"They just wanted some help," Manhein said.

Bossier officials initially estimated the remains belonged to a white male of medium stature who was between 18 and 25 years of age. Manhein's evaluation led her to suspect the man possibly included a mixture of American Indian.

Through the years she has included Hispanic in the evaluation, as additional studies over the past 25 years have shown that skulls of Hispanics include a mixture of other groups.

"Over the years we kept the remains and would re-evaluate them and just hope and pray that something would come up that we could identify him," Manhein said.

In March, Manhein asked imaging specialist Eileen Barrow to do an updated facial reconstruction of the skull. Manhein took it with her to a workshop she conducted in Bossier Parish, hoping to spark any new leads among law enforcement officers.

In April, The Times interviewed DeSoto sheriff's Lt. Robert Davidson and Manhein in the FACES Lab for a story about Manhein's work and how it is assisting area law enforcement agencies. Davidson, a 33-year law enforcement veteran who several years ago took over the sheriff's office's cold cases, noticed a similarity in the facial reconstruction and a photograph he had posted on the sheriff's office's new Web site that includes information about unsolved homicide and missing person cases.

"He just saw it sitting on the table and asked if it could possibly be a Hispanic male. It reminded him of one of his cases," Manhein said. "That's the whole idea behind these facial reconstructions — to pique someone's memory."

Manhein looked at Barajas' photograph on the sheriff's Web site and agreed it might be a long shot but one that was worth pursuing. Davidson noted it was odd that the unidentified remains in Manhein's possession were discovered in a Bossier Parish landfill in 1979, which is the same year a Texas man's body was found in an old Mansfield dump.

Those remains were identified as belonging to Michael Norris Catlett, 27, who was reported missing from Mansfield in December 1975. He was accompanied to Mansfield by Barajas, who also was reported missing following his visit to Mansfield.

Davidson was unable to contact members of Barajas' family listed in the old investigative file.

So he turned to a McAllen, Texas, newspaper, which published a story in its English- and Spanish-speaking editions seeking relatives of Barajas.

The day the story appeared, Davidson received a call from Barajas' nephew. Davidson asked if any surviving siblings would submit DNA samples. Davidson arranged for a Texas Ranger to take the samples from Barajas' sister and brother and ship them to Manhein's office. Manhein in turn provided the samples to the Shreveport crime lab.

"The crime lab confirmed a hit on all three types of DNA," Manhein said.

"This is extremely exciting and important. It shows us that 32-year-old DNA can be extracted from bones," Manhein said. "But I think the greatest point is that law enforcement agencies cooperating with us can get these cases solved "» and it also shows the importance of picking the brains of these investigators before they retire."

And it also shows that no case is too old to pursue, Davidson said.

Manhein already has helped the DeSoto sheriff's office identify remains found in March in a wooded area near Grand Cane. Through DNA analysis, the remains were identified as Lamanski Groce, an Alabama man reported missing in October.

Manhein is working with DeSoto investigators on two other missing person cases, one of which dates back to 1984. Manhein hopes to soon have an answer on DNA analysis in that case.

"Technology was not as advanced back then but it is now so we can take these cases, review them and apply the new technology and hopefully solve some of them," Davidson said.

Davidson notified Barajas' nephew Monday about the confirmed identification. Davidson described his reaction as "ecstatic."

"He said he couldn't believe we'd still be working on cases that old. He was real happy," Davidson said.

The nephew, when contacted by The Times on Wednesday, said he was uncertain how his family wanted to handle any public statements.

The only hitch being worked out now is getting a death certificate signed. Typically the coroner in the parish where the death occurred or body is found must do it. But Bossier Parish's records of the remains' discovery in 1979 are sketchy.

DeSoto Sheriff Rodney Arbuckle is working with Bossier Parish Sheriff Larry Deen and his staff in trying to track down more specifics of the case. All Manhein has worked with since 1982 is a brief paragraph that states the remains were discovered in 1979 buried in a "landfill near Bossier Parish." It further states that the remains were found "after heavy rains washed the dirt."

Davidson has sought out several retired Bossier sheriff's detectives, but so far none can specifically recall information about the case.

"Good record-keeping is important and especially for these cases so that the new people coming on will have something to work with when others retire," Davidson said.

Davidson admits the existing file about Catlett's and Barajas' visit to Mansfield is slim but it does provide enough reports and copies of suspect interviews that it gives investigators a place to start to possibly open a new investigation.

According to the investigative reports, on Dec. 13, 1975, Catlett and Barajas drove a green Dodge pickup loaded with $30,000 worth of marijuana from McAllen, Texas, to Mansfield, where they were to meet two men. Witnesses place Catlett and Barajas in the city on that date.

Shreveport police documented the truck, sans the marijuana, parked in a south Shreveport store's parking lot Dec. 20, 1975, and Dec. 27, 1975. A store owner told police it had been there since Dec. 14, 1975.

But it wasn't until Jan. 1, 1976, that officers got a "hit" that it was connected to a missing person and had it towed. A small amount of marijuana was found in the truck, which had been wiped clean of prints.

Catlett was believed to be involved in a drug smuggling ring out of south Texas. At the time of his disappearance, Barajas was wanted by the FBI for probation violation, according to the reports.

A separate Mansfield police incident report dated May 18, 1979, indicates "someone with the highway department" found a decomposed body buried in the old city dump. It was later identified as Catlett, Davidson said.

Barajas' sister, who was living in Leesville at the time, reported him missing in January 1976. She told authorities he had been in Mansfield.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...40325/1002/NEWS
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Detectives Solve Mystery Of 28-Year-Old Missing Man

Aug 24, 2007 10:22 AM CDT






A forensic anthropologist and a cold case detective have unlocked the identity of a man whose bones were pulled from a landfill in 1979.
Twenty-year-old Victor Barajas of McAllen, Texas, had not been seen since December 1975 in Mansfield. His sister, then living in Leesville, reported him missing in January 1976.
Bossier Parish detectives gave the bones in 1982 to Mary Manhein, then a graduate student at Louisiana State University, hoping she could identify them. She did a facial reconstruction.
"Over the years we kept the remains and would re-evaluate them and just hope and pray that something would come up that we could identify him," said Manhein, now director of the LSU Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services Lab, called FACES.
She recently asked imaging specialist Eileen Barrow in March to update the facial reconstruction.
In April, DeSoto sheriff's Lt. Robert Davidson told Manhein and The Times of Shreveport that the reconstruction looked a bit like a photograph on the sheriff's office's new cold case Web site.
"He just saw it sitting on the table and asked if it could possibly be a Hispanic male. It reminded him of one of his cases," Manhein said. "That's the whole idea behind these facial reconstructions - to pique someone's memory."
Further work, including placing a picture in The (McAllen) Monitor newspaper, led to Barajas' brother and sister, who submitted DNA samples that matched those of the remains found in Mansfield.
Davidson said Barajas' nephew was ecstatic when told Monday that his uncle's remains had been identified.
"He said he couldn't believe we'd still be working on cases that old. He was real happy," Davidson said.
The remains had been found at the same time as those of Michael Norris Catlett, 27, who had come to Mansfield with Barajas and also was reported missing from there in December 1975.
The case file shows that Catlett, whose remains were found in a different dump, was believed to be involved in a drug smuggling ring out of south Texas. Barajas was wanted by the FBI for probation violation, according to the reports.
The case file shows that Catlett was believed to be involved in a drug smuggling ring out of south Texas. Barajas was wanted by the FBI for probation violation, according to the reports.
It indicates that they brought $30,000 worth of marijuana from McAllen to Mansfield on Dec. 13, 1975.
Their green Dodge pickup truck - without marijuana - had been parked outside a south Shreveport store since Dec. 14, 1975.
Officers had it towed on New Year's Day 1976, after learning that it was connected to a missing person. In it, they found a little marijuana.

http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=6978357&nav=0RY5
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