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| MNM030219 / Sean Rush; Bloomington, MN 02-19-2003 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 18 2006, 07:20 PM (757 Views) | |
| 100PercentFound | Jul 18 2006, 07:20 PM Post #1 |
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Photo........ http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/...php?A200300383S Unidentified If you believe you have any information regarding this case that will be helpful in this investigation please contact: Hennepin County Medical Examiner at (612) 215-6300 Name: MN - John Doe 0383 Classification: Unidentified Investigative Case #: 2003-473 NCIC #: U-700004485 Dental Charts Available: Y DNA Available: Y Skeletal Remains (y/n): N Located Date: 2003-02-19 Date of Death From: 2003-02-19 Area Found: Mall of America Area Found: Bloomington, MN Approximate Age: 20-40 Gender: Male Height: 70 inches Weight: 200 pounds Race: White Complexion: Medium Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Brown Identifying Characteristics: Right cheek has 5/8 in linear scar, scars in the right hairline and left of midline. Individual has no tattoos or piercings. Circumstances: Individual apparently jumped from a parking ramp at the Mall of America. The injuries resulted in fatality. Primary Investigating Agency Investigative Agency: Hennepin County Medical Examiner Phone: (612) 215-6300 |
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| ELL | Oct 29 2006, 03:24 PM Post #2 |
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Name: Sean Thomas Rush Classification: Endangered Missing Adult Date of Birth: 1980-11-16 Date Missing: 2003-02-17 From City/State: St. Paul, MN Missing From (Country): USA Age at Time of Disappearance: 22 Gender: Male Race: White Height: 73 inches Weight: 170 pounds Hair Color: Blonde Eye Color: Hazel Complexion: Light Glasses/Contacts Description: Clear contacts. Identifying Characteristics: Scar approximately 1 1/2" long under chin, previously fractured collarbone. Clothing: Usually wears a short black leather jacket. Circumstances of Disappearance: Unknown. Sean was last seen at approximately 8:00am at his residence in the vicinity of the 300 block of Ashland in St. Paul, MN. Investigative Agency: St. Paul Police Department Phone: (651) 266-5646 Investigative Case #: 03-043069 http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/...php?A200503785S |
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| PorchlightUSA | Apr 17 2007, 08:45 AM Post #3 |
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http://doenetwork.org/cases/608ummn.html Unidentified White Male The victim was discovered on February 19, 2003 in Bloomington, Hennepin County, Minnesota Estimated Date of Death: February 19, 2003 Cause of Death: Suicide -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vital Statistics Estimated age: 20 - 40 years old Approximate Height and Weight: 5'10; 200 lbs. Distinguishing Characteristics: Wavy brown hair; brown eyes; he wore a short, goatee-style moustache and beard, with a few days' growth filled in around it. Medium complexion. No tattoos or piercings. Right cheek has 5/8 in linear scar; scars in the right hairline and left of midline. Clothing: A Boston Bruins baseball cap; cargo-style jeans, blue pullover, green hooded sweatshirt, black leather jacket. He wore Birkenstock boots, which retail for somewhere around $240. Dentals: No fillings or other dental restorations. His teeth weren't sealed, he'd enjoyed good preventative dental care. He was probably of a socioeconomic group that was middle class or upper middle class. Fingerprints: Available. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Case History The victim was located at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota on February 19, 2003. He apparently committed suicide by jumping from a parking ramp at the Mall; the injuries resulted in fatality. He appeared well cared for; his clothes were clean and fairly new. Though an ambulance rushed the man to the Hennepin County Medical Center, he never again regained consciousness. He died shortly after midnight, without having uttered a word about his identity or motives for jumping. He carried no wallet, no ID, nothing. Police and mall security scoured the area for abandoned cars, but found none. It was a long shot anyway, since none of the three keys found in the man's pocket suggested he'd driven to the mall. They weren't car keys. They were generic cuts, according to a locksmith. One was engraved, "Do not duplicate," and probably fit an apartment door somewhere. If the keys can be considered clues, so then can the other contents of his pockets: a buck knife, 95 cents, and a lighter. There were no drugs, illicit or prescription, in his bloodstream to signal anything about his health or lifestyle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Investigators If you have any information about this case please contact: Hennepin County Medical Examiner Senior Investigator Roberta Geiselhart 612-215-6300 You may remain anonymous when submitting information. Agency Case Number: 2003-473 NCIC Number: U-700004485 Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case. Source Information: http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/...php?A200300383S http://www.citypages.com/databank/24/1195/article11613.asp |
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| PorchlightUSA | Apr 17 2007, 08:49 AM Post #4 |
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http://citypages.com/databank/24/1195/article11613.asp Eight months ago, a man jumped from a Mall of America parking ramp. Medical examiners still don't know who he was. Nowhere Man by Beth Hawkins October 29, 2003 Shortly after 9:00 p.m. last February 18, Bloomington Police Officer George Harms stopped his squad car at a red light along the eastern edge of the Mall of America. As he waited for the light to change, a car pulled up alongside him. "You see that guy fall?" its driver asked. Harms scanned the snow at the base of the mall's parking ramp, just as the driver had directed, and spotted a body lying on the ground. He radioed dispatch and pulled over to get a closer look. What he discovered was a man lying half in the roadway and half on the sidewalk and boulevard. The man was unconscious; his breathing was shallow. A Boston Bruins baseball cap lay by his side. Mall security officer Braden John Hatzenbeller arrived on the scene and recognized the man right away. He'd encountered him about two hours earlier--at 7:30--near the north end of the ramp's seventh floor. He'd told the man that the seventh level was off limits to mall guests and asked him to leave. Hatzenbeller said he'd watched the man walk away and down the stairs. Because he'd been acting "weird," mall security tracked him via camera for a short time. Other officers drove up to the closed-off area of the ramp. They found a few footprints winding through a snow bank and leading to a railing, which was covered in a dusting of white. It was an eerie, puzzling scene. But not as puzzling as the months of investigation that would follow. |
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| PorchlightUSA | Apr 17 2007, 08:51 AM Post #5 |
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http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/in...pic=15122&st=0& |
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| PorchlightUSA | Sep 21 2007, 06:21 PM Post #6 |
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http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/rush_sean.html Sean Thomas Rush Above: Rush, circa 2003 Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance Missing Since: February 17, 2003 from St. Paul, Minnesota Classification: Missing Date of Birth: November 16, 1980 Age: 22 years old Height and Weight: 6'1, 170 pounds Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian male. Blond hair, hazel eyes. Rush wears clear contact lenses. He has a one-and-a-half-inch scar under his chin and he has previously fractured his collarbone. Clothing/Jewelry Description: Unknown, but he usually wears a short black leather jacket. Details of Disappearance Rush was last seen at approximately 8:00 a.m. on February 17, 2003 at his residence in the vicinity of the 300 block of Ashland in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has never been heard from again. Few details are available in his case. Investigating Agency If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: St. Paul Police Department 651-266-5646 Source Information The National Center for Missing Adults Updated 1 time since October 12, 2004. Last updated January 24, 2006; casefile added. Charley Project Home |
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| ELL | Feb 9 2008, 02:23 PM Post #7 |
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http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/in...pic=15122&st=0& Is this Sean Rush? A day after the 22-year-old disappeared, an unidentified man took a fatal leap in Bloomington. Soon, their mysteries may be solved. BY MARA H. GOTTFRIED Pioneer Press Article Last Updated: 02/09/2008 12:13:58 AM CST An unmarked grave at Oakland Cemetery in St. Paul is the resting place of a man who fell to his death from a Mall of America parking ramp in 2003. Police suspect he was Sean Rush. (SHERRI LAROSE-CHIGLO, Pioneer Press)Five years ago, Sean Rush disappeared - five agonizing years for a family left wondering where the St. Paul man could be. During nearly the same time, a body in a St. Paul grave has been marked with a donated headstone that bears only the words "Rest In Peace" and "2003." Investigators have unsuccessfully struggled to identify the man. Now, investigators are asking: Is Rush the man who committed suicide at the Mall of America? A St. Paul missing-persons investigator recently stumbled upon the case of "Mall of America Man" on the Internet and wondered whether it could be Rush. Rush was 22 when he disappeared in 2003 and is the city's second-oldest unsolved missing-persons case. Rush was last seen Feb. 17, 2003. The next day, a man who was never identified jumped from a parking ramp at the Mall of America. He died Feb. 19, 2003. The suicide victim and Rush resembled each other, the investigator thought. Police dug into both cases and requested a DNA sample from Rush's father. It is being compared with DNA that was preserved from the John Doe. Though the DNA results are not back yet, Rush's father is convinced the unidentified man was his son and investigators are cautiously optimistic. "It feels good if we're able to close it out and get closure for the family, but if this turns out to be him, I think we all wish we could have found him alive," said St. Paul police officer Lisa Kruse, who made the connection between the cases. BREAK IN THE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Advertisement -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CASE At the beginning of this year, missing-persons investigators culled through older cases and picked some to actively investigate, said Cmdr. Paul Iovino, who heads the missing persons unit. The Rush case was one of them. Kruse went to the Web site for the National Center for Missing Adults, theyaremissed.org, the last week of January to remove information about a woman who had been found. While on the site's "unidentified persons" section, she checked out cases from Minnesota - "just looking to look," Kruse said. She saw a Bloomington case and clicked on it to get more information. "Right away, the thing that caught my eye was the located date and the date of death were very close to the last date that Sean had been seen," Kruse said. "The age, physical description were all very similar." After seeing the Mall of America Man case, Kruse said, she asked her partner to get the Rush file to compare the details. Then, she called the Hennepin County medical examiner's office. When Rush's father first saw a composite sketch of Mall of America Man (the Hennepin County medical examiner's office doesn't publicly release photos of the dead), he said, he was unconvinced it was his son. But Bill Rush changed his mind when he learned what the man had been wearing - a leather jacket and Boston Bruins cap. Sean Rush frequently wore the same things, Bill Rush said. Rush's family always had considered the possibility that the 22-year-old had killed himself, but they thought there was a chance Rush had left town to start a new life or that foul play was involved. His Ashland Avenue apartment appeared to have been ransacked, and he never picked up his last paycheck from Mississippi Market on Selby Avenue, where he worked at the juice bar. Rush's family knew he was going through a hard time when he disappeared. He had been drinking too much, had been in a physical altercation with his girlfriend, had a falling out with his best friend and was increasingly writing dark things in his journal, Bill Rush said. Rush always had struggled with some depression, Bill Rush said. He had left notes around his apartment, Bill Rush said. They didn't say he was going to kill himself, but they left his possessions to various people. A BODY FALLS It was about 7:30 p.m. Feb. 18, 2003, when a Mall of America security guard encountered a man on the seventh floor of the east parking ramp. The man was "acting weird and seemed depressed," the guard told police, said Bloomington police Cmdr. Jim Ryan, who is in charge of investigations. The guard told the man the floor was off limits to mall visitors, and the man left. Because of his behavior, the guard asked the mall's safety center to try to monitor him with surveillance cameras, Ryan said. At 9:40 p.m., a Bloomington police officer was at a red light on 24th Avenue when a car pulled up next to him. The driver asked the officer, "Did you see that guy fall?" Ryan said. When the officer looked to where the driver was pointing, he saw a person lying on the ground. The man was unresponsive and his breathing was shallow when the officer reached him, Ryan said. The mall security guard said he believed it was the same man he had talked to earlier. An ambulance took the man to Hennepin County Medical Center. He never regained consciousness and died shortly after midnight. The man had no identification, so the Hennepin County medical examiner's office looked for clues. In the pockets of the man's jeans were 95 cents, a lighter, a Buck knife and three keys (none was for a car). Of the thousands of cases the medical examiner's office handles each year, nearly all are identified. Those who aren't tend to have the appearance of transients, but Mall of America Man did not, said Roberta Geiselhart, the medical examiner's office supervisor of investigations. Mall of America Man had been wearing Birkenstock boots, which sold for more than $200. His teeth had no fillings, and he had received preventive dental care. His hands weren't calloused. All the unidentified cases trouble Geiselhart, but this one was especially troubling. "He was younger; he was really in good shape; he didn't appear to have been living on the streets," she said. "To all of the investigative staff here, someone was missing him, and the dots were just not connecting. Everyone bought into the mission of trying to get the man identified." Eleven months after Mall of America Man died, after officials several times solicited the public's help to identify him, the man was buried. Geiselhart and a handful of other strangers showed up at Oakland Cemetery for the short service. "They were saying he shouldn't be buried alone," said Bob Schoenrock, Oakland's general manager, who was also at the funeral. Money later was donated for the simple granite headstone, Schoenrock said. "They left room, in case they ever figured out who it was, so they could put his name on it," Schoenrock said. 'WHY SO LONG?' Bill Rush is relieved he may finally know what happened to his son, but he still has questions. "Why did this take so long? Why did we have to go through this for so long?" he asks. St. Paul police investigators knew about the Bloomington case in 2003, but they didn't seem connected, said Cmdr. Tim Lynch, who headed the missing persons unit when Rush disappeared. "At the time we didn't put it together because the timelines didn't appear to match," Lynch said. Three weeks passed before Rush was reported missing and police wouldn't have begun to actively investigate the case until some time after that because of a backlog of cases at the time, Lynch said. Information about when Rush was last seen wasn't refined until later, when investigators looked at cell-phone records. Today, with more investigators in the missing persons unit, police can work on current cases faster - and look back at cold cases, Iovino said. The medical examiner's office had never heard of the Rush case, Geiselhart said. Though it appeared in the media several times, Rush's parents didn't see the composite sketch of Mall of America Man because they don't live in Minnesota. Rush had moved from his hometown of Sioux City, Iowa, to St. Paul in 2002, so it's unclear how many people knew him locally. The medical examiner's office did receive calls from the public, with tips about who the man could be, but "never anyone calling with his (Rush's) name," Geiselhart said. In the future, DNA may help link other missing persons cases to unidentified remains. State legislation led to the creation in 2006 of a missing and unidentified persons program at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said Janell Rasmussen, BCA government relations administrator. There are more than 800 missing people and about 200 unidentified remains in Minnesota, Rasmussen said. The BCA has been gathering DNA from the remains and from families of the missing to enter into the FBI's DNA database, she said. So far, DNA hasn't linked any cases. It might be slow going until other states begin entering DNA for missing and unidentified people into the database, Rasmussen said. The only other states doing so are Florida, California, New York and Texas, Rasmussen said. "So often, missing kids who are runaways or adults who leave go somewhere else," Rasmussen said. "If they're murdered or found dead in another state, we'll never know unless their DNA is entered." Mara H. Gottfried covers St. Paul public safety. She can be reached at mgottfried@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5262. http://www.twincities.com/ci_8213240?source=most_viewed |
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| ELL | Feb 23 2008, 06:56 AM Post #8 |
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It's official: Mall of America jumper is missing St. Paul man BY MARA H. GOTTFRIED Pioneer Press Article Last Updated: 02/22/2008 07:04:49 PM CST The body of a man who committed suicide at a Mall of America parking ramp five years ago has been identified as a 22-year-old St. Paul man missing for the same period of time, the Hennepin County medical examiner's office said today. "It's with somber satisfaction that we are now able to identify this gentleman," the medical examiner's office said in a press release. Sean Rush was last seen Feb. 17, 2003. The next day, a man carrying no identification jumped from a parking ramp at the Mall of America. He died Feb. 19, 2003. Investigators from different agencies have worked on both cases since then, but a St. Paul missing persons investigator recently put them together as possibly connected. DNA samples from Rush's family were compared with DNA preserved from the John Doe, Rush's father said. He said he was notified today that the DNA was a match. See tomorrow's Pioneer Press for more on this story. http://www.twincities.com/ci_8338243 |
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| ELL | Feb 23 2008, 06:58 AM Post #9 |
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http://www.twincities.com/ci_8338243 It's official: Mall of America jumper is missing St. Paul man BY MARA H. GOTTFRIED Pioneer Press Article Last Updated: 02/22/2008 07:04:49 PM CST The body of a man who committed suicide at a Mall of America parking ramp five years ago has been identified as a 22-year-old St. Paul man missing for the same period of time, the Hennepin County medical examiner's office said today. "It's with somber satisfaction that we are now able to identify this gentleman," the medical examiner's office said in a press release. Sean Rush was last seen Feb. 17, 2003. The next day, a man carrying no identification jumped from a parking ramp at the Mall of America. He died Feb. 19, 2003. Investigators from different agencies have worked on both cases since then, but a St. Paul missing persons investigator recently put them together as possibly connected. DNA samples from Rush's family were compared with DNA preserved from the John Doe, Rush's father said. He said he was notified today that the DNA was a match. See tomorrow's Pioneer Press for more on this story. |
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