# There are more than 15,000 unidentified-decedent cases in the US today. Does that surprise you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [September 13, 2026, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027 "2026-09-13T01:37:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/81 "2026-09-25T21:40:46Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > I guess I was surprised there were so many people out there who could disappear and nobody would notice they were gone. It’s sad really. I think you’re just misjudging the scale. “Fifteen thousand” sounds huge; Why that’s a decent down payment on filling a football or baseball stadium! OMG! But the USA is also huge. Very huge. @peccavi in post 47 established that roughly 1000 people die unidentified and are still unidentified one year later. Those are the people who contribute to the growing backlog of unidentified people. That is about 3 per day for round numbers. Three across the whole USA. The USA has 380M people. About 5M die every year. Which is ~15,000 per day. So each day 14,997 are identified and 3 are not. Roughly 1 in 5000. Seems like a pretty good success rate to me. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/82 "2026-09-25T21:59:15Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > Tell me which ones you listen to. I’ll try to put a list together tonight. The ones I like are the ones where the people disappear with no real explanation. People do care about them but they are just gone. > **[Tim Hatfield](https://www.facebook.com/tim.hatfield.5/posts/the-mount-marathon-disappearance-of-michael-paul-lemaitreone-of-alaskas-stranges/27456711284013652/)** > > The Mount Marathon Disappearance of Michael Paul LeMaitre. > > One of Alaska’s strangest unsolved mysteries happened during one of Alaska’s most famous traditions. > > On July 4, 2012, 65-year-old Michael... > **[A World-Class Skyrunner Vanished on the Matterhorn. What Happened to Kalie...](https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/kalie-mccrystal-missing-matterhorn/?scope=anon)** > > From corporate lawyer to world-class skyrunner, Kalie McCrystal moved through extreme terrain with precision and joy. Friends and fellow mountaineers detail the high-stakes search on the Matterhorn. > **[She Vanished on a Colorado Mountain. 19 Years Later, a Mysterious Dream...](https://5280.com/she-disappeared-on-a-colorado-mountain-a-dream-helped-rescuers-find-her/)** > > Michelle Vanek disappeared on Mt. of the Holy Cross in 2005, setting off the largest search for a missing hiker in state history. The trail went cold—until an all-women team reopened the case. [This is a really weird one:](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/ck12em/an_82_year_old_hunter_goes_missing_without_a/) ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/83 "2026-09-25T22:57:11Z")
Thanks. I will check them out for sure. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/84 "2026-09-25T23:01:12Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > he ones I like are the ones where the people disappear with no real explanation. I find these interesting, like the third story about Michelle Vanek. For every tale with a unprepared hiker where they later find the body, you have one where a prepared (and even elderly) hiker was found quite sometime later, suffering from exposure, but alive and basically well. This trip= forgot food and water, a newbie to high altitude hike, and they split up to “tag the summit”. Now, sure, they took the wrong trail to start, but if properly prepared (10 essentials, and in this case, do not take a newbie on a high altitude hike), that would not have ended in a death- just “Heck, let’s turn around now”. But that article- using terms like "Male dominated’ and “…in a dream. “She told me she wanted to be found by a team of women,” is getting off into the shallow end of the metaphysical, etc (The conclusion was- the victim died as she was thirsty (remember, forgot the water?) and went for a lake, but fell instead) To, me the second article- “Elite trail runner”- is not much of a mystery. > [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > This is a really weird one: > Thomas was 82, missing an eye, wore hearing aids, and had heart problems. Not _that_ weird. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2026, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/85 "2026-09-28T16:32:12Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Not _that_ weird. Oh, yeah, then what do you think happened to him? It’s **because** of all those things that make it weird. He was in a blind where he was supposed to stay, he had a bad ticker and was old - he shouldn’t of been able to go far (that’s why he was in the blind and not part of the drive) and yet despite one of the most extensive searches in the Adirondacks in years, as an estimated 29 square miles in northern Warren County were covered by more than 300 searchers his body was never found. That’s pretty strange to me. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2026, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/86 "2026-10-11T01:50:32Z")
Right now I’m watching a TV show on Nat Geo called “[Naming the Dead](https://dnadoeproject.org/namingthedead/)” in which police detectives and amateur DNA researchers, genealogists, and journalists combine to identify cold case John/Jane Does, some of them dead and unidentified for many years. Quite fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2026, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/87 "2026-10-11T09:24:14Z")
I wonder if that number includes the over 1000 people killed on 9/11 that have not had remains identified? 2,753 people were killed. 1,099 have no identified remains. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) is a morgue holding the unidentified remains that were recovered. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027.md?page=4)