A man believed to be around 50 years old was pulled from the Detroit River near Grosse Ile last Tuesday, and police still don't know who he is. The Grosse Ile Township Police Department is now asking the public for help identifying him, pointing to a set of distinctive tattoos as the clearest lead investigators have.
The body, recovered on September 8, was described by police as belonging to a white man roughly 50 years old, standing between 5 feet 3 inches and 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing about 150 pounds, with short dark or graying hair, according to CBS News. He had multiple tattoos, including a crucifix across his back, a cross surrounded by the words “Italian Bad Boy” on his right shoulder, an Italian flag on his left shoulder, and praying hands with the word “famiglia” inked on his upper right chest.
Grosse Ile police are seeking information both on the man's identity and on the circumstances surrounding his death, per the same report. Anyone with information is asked to contact Deputy Chief Kevin Counts at 734-676-7100.
A Waterway Known for Carrying Remains Far From Where They Entered
Grosse Ile is a cluster of 14 islands along the Detroit River, with roughly half of the township's 18.67 square miles made up of water, according to Wikipedia. Situated about 18 miles southwest of downtown Detroit and reachable from the mainland by only two bridges, the island's extensive river frontage includes shorelines and canals.
That geography intersects with the river's own current. The Detroit River is a 32-mile international shipping channel linking Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie, with surface currents moving at 1 to 3 feet per second, per an analysis published on ArcGIS StoryMaps. The cited analysis reports surface currents of 1 to 3 feet per second in the river.
This is not the first time the river has delivered an unidentified body to Downriver communities. Hoodline previously reported on a body pulled from the river at Ecorse's Dingell Park in March, after multiple 911 calls reported a body in the river at Ecorse's Dingell Park.
Concurrent Recovery Underscores a Busy Stretch of Water
The Grosse Ile recovery came the same day that the Wayne County Marine Division and the U.S. Coast Guard recovered the body of a 74-year-old boater who had fallen overboard from a 58-foot yacht near Grosse Pointe Shores in Lake St. Clair, according to CBS News. Authorities had been searching regional waters covering 89 square nautical miles following a holiday weekend boating incident, the same report noted.
Identifying remains recovered from the water is a routine but resource-intensive task for the region. The Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office investigates more than 18,000 reported deaths annually and accepts roughly 3,500 decedents for further investigation annually, with full autopsies performed on approximately 70 percent of those cases, making it the fourth-busiest medical examiner's office by volume in the country, according to the Wayne State University School of Medicine. The office also handles about 3,000 unclaimed or unidentified persons cases each year and maintains a searchable public database intended to help relatives identify the deceased, per Wayne County.
Cases Like This Are Part of a Larger Regional Pattern
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs, is a federal system referenced in statistics on unidentified-person cases. Grosse Ile's police department serves an island population of about 10,800 residents.
The Michigan State Police operates a Missing Persons Coordination Unit. Grosse Ile police say they are seeking information about who the man was and how he died.
