Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, WA Home Inspector (King of the House)

It is hard to believe, in this modern world, that a person could vanish and nobody would notice that he or she went missing.

This true story involves a missing person. It is one of Bellingham's great unsolved mysteries. It is not the typical missing person story  where someone vanishes and the family and police are left looking for that person. This one is weird: A man's body was found and now, nearly 22 years later, he has still not been identified.

This incident occurred at the Georgia Pacific paper mill in Bellingham. My late father-in-law was a security guard at the mill when this incident made the news. I also knew the medical examiner.

On September 20, 1987, a G-P worker was checking the interior of the no. 9 chimney. Inside of it he saw a skeleton. The body was resting on super-heated boiler pipes and temperatures would reach 370 degrees in the chimney. Authorities estimated that the unidentified man had been there from a few days to a few weeks. The skeleton was badly burned and that hindered efforts to identify the body.

The man had zero ID -- no keys, wallet, rings, watch nor clothes or tools that might indicate that he was a worker who had, for one reason or another, been trapped or died on the job.

I know, from my father-in-law, that, not long before this occurred, major renovations had taken place at the mill so, at first, they thought this was a worker for a sub-contractor -- who was unknown to local mill employees and could have even been a worker from out of state.

Authorities contacted every company, who had had employees on-site at that time. Nothing. All workers and employees were accounted for. Some people suggested that maybe he was homeless, a possibility, but it was not like he had fallen into an easy access chimney. To access it, one had to climb a number of stairs inside the plant, and then get out on the roof.

As the mystery unfolded, authorities released an artist's drawing, of what the man might have looked like. This drawing is from 1987.

Then, in the year 2000, another drawing was distributed by police. 

While at first the drawings appear to be much different, if you look closely there are a number of similarities in the distinguishing features.

There is a missing persons website with further details on this case. While there are few specifics, there is lots of general information about the unidentified man:

• Estimated age: 27 - 37 years old
• Approximate Height and Weight: 5'8"-5'9"; 130 - 155 lbs.
• Distinguishing Characteristics: The victim had small feet, probably wearing a size 8 shoe.
• Dentals: The man had had dental work, including silver and gold fillings and possibly a root canal. It was not indigent dental work, it was good quality care for that time frame the mid 1980s.
• Clothing: Police found charred remnants of denim pants and a denim jacket, a lightweight shirt, and rubber-soled shoes. The coat was off and under the body, apparently to shield him from the heat. The shirt was draped or wrapped around one ankle, possibly to bind an injury. Police also found a burned remnant of a Continental Airlines ticket or baggage claim, but could not make out the numbers to trace the ticket.
• DNA: The chimney heat destroyed DNA in the skeleton

This is an intriguing mystery that is part of Bellingham's weird lore -- like our connection to the Hillside Strangler, the DC snipers and maybe Ted Bundy. The G-P mill, once a major source of employment in this county, has been shut down now for a couple years.

This mystery has an eerie quality and it does make one pause and ask the larger question:

"What kind of life can a person have if he or she vanishes and nobody even notices that they are gone? "

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections