Protect and Serve

           It was the middle of fall and the middle of the week when two men found me. Apparently, they were heading south toward the Florida Keys on US 1. Maybe they were driving their usual route home. Maybe they were just taking a day trip. Whatever it was, they were in for an interesting ride.

I was buried in a foot of water in the swamps off US 1 and mile marker 120 in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. I was shot. This was homicide.

I was a pretty darn handsome man, age 35 to 45, Caucasian/Latino. I was 5'7" and weighed 141 lbs. I had brown eyes and short brown hair. I was wearing a pair of Gap blue jeans, size 31/28, and a dark blue T-shirt that had a City of New York Police Department emblem on the left side, right over my heart. I had on white socks with blue trim and size 11 black Buffalino shoes. It’s safe to say my favorite color, at least that day, was blue. The color of water. The water I was buried in.

Did someone mistake me for a police officer and have a bad taste for law enforcement? Was I targeted? Did a family member of mine work for the NYPD and give me a shirt for Christmas one year? What if I was in the process of getting a transfer to New York and wanted to be a part of New York’s finest?

        Maybe I had witnessed a crime and tried to do my due diligence, but my bare hands could not beat out a firearm. Whoever decided that day in October was the end of my days was the last person I ever saw. Did that angry person or group take me to the swamps to bury me there? Or just push me out of a moving vehicle as they fled? Will you help me find the answers?

If you have any information about this man, please contact:
Miami-Dade Medical Examiner
305-545-2400
305-545-2412 (fax)
Case #ME 1991-2727
Metro Dade Police Department 506844-L
NCIC #U539095379

View his profile here:  Miami-Dade, Florida, John Doe, October 1991