The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office has released an updated image of a John Doe body found in 1994.
The department's public information officer, Claudette Bennett, said when the body was found in a wooded area of Port Charlotte, it was extremely difficult to identify.
"The body was partially decomposing, so DNA and all of that was really hard to come by," Bennett said. "We have partial finger prints but the body was unclothed, missing teeth—basically very, very hard to identify who this person was."
A clay model of the man, labeled as John Doe 1, was released the same year the body was found. Bennett said the department hopes the new image released on Wednesday will lead to his identification.
"We do believe this man is possibly homeless, transient and we don’t believe that he is from our area," Bennett said. "So we’re trying to reach as many people as we can outside of Florida as well, to see if we can identify him and notify his family."
According to the sheriff's office, John Doe 1's death has been linked to four other bodies found in Charlotte County, known as the Hog Trail Murders.
Bennett said the image represents a general image of what John Doe 1 may have looked like and encourages people who recognize the image to contact the department.
