Sometimes the first clues on the person come from people with whom he or she spent time on the street. Carol Fennelly, of the Community for Creative Non-Violence, said she and her staff also tap into the loose information network among the homeless. In Jones's case, advocates were able to make a tentative identification because she was known around George Washington University, in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood and she often would seek refuge in the hospital's emergency room. The precise ages of Jones, Johnson and a homeless man whose body was found recently floating in the Tidal Basin, for example, are not known. Unless the dead person can be traced by police through fingerprints or identified by relatives or close friends, the chance of getting even a remotely complete biographical sketch is dim. Aside from Jones, the other person to die of exposure was Johnson Griffith, who was found in November near Dupont Circle. Since November, four homeless people have died during cold weather, and the first two have been tentatively identified. Police detectives who try to establish identities of homeless people after their deaths often rely on advocates and shelter workers, to the point of bringing some of them to the morgue to view the bodies. Neither has been identified yet, and the causes of their deaths have not been officially determined, though advocates for the homeless believe the frigid weather played a significant role. The generally anonymous existence of those who live on the streets, they said, creates enormous obstacles when they die.Īttempts to identify two homeless people who died Thursday and Friday began as soon as the bodies were discovered. More than two months after a woman was found dead of exposure near George Washington University Hospital, advocates for the homeless know almost nothing about her except that she called herself Lily Mae Jones.įor advocates, the woman's case illustrates how difficult it is to track down even scant biographical information on the homeless.
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