FORT MYERS, Fla. — With the help of a student at Ringling College of Art and Design, a skull previously labeled as John Doe has been identified.
The remains found in 2024 have been identified as Shane Michael Williams.
But how did students help identify him?
Joe Mullins, a forensic imaging specialist at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children taught a workshop using 3D prints of real skulls. Those skulls are unidentified remains from the Medical Examiner's Office in Fort Myers, which covers all of Southwest Florida.
Mullins taught students, staff and other law enforcement agencies how to create a clay facial approximation based on information from detectives and the medical examiner's office.
In this case, the ME's Office said the skeleton found was a White man between 30 and 40-years-old. He was found on August 30, 2024. However, he likely died between 2023-2024.
Using anatomy and information from the ME, the facial approximation was created by Ringing College senior Noah Shadowens with guidance from Mullins.
Fort Myers Cold Case Detective Richard Harasym also attended the workshop as a spectator and saw the final product. He was not assigned to this specific case.
However, he started to look at the case file, including crime scene photos, days later. Harasym told Fox 4 Senior Reporter Kaitlin Knapp at the scene, there was a journal.
They think it had been in the elements for five to six months, maybe longer. In the journal, he says there was a phone number and a person's first name.
Harasym says he played with the name and number and came back with the last name Williams, possibly a brother. The detective couldn't reach him, so he tracked down someone else who was named in the journal. The only name in there was Riley.
Riley called him back and Harasym sent Riley a piece of the handwriting found in the journal, which she said was her boyfriend's brother, Shane.
Harasym sent the facial approximation and a piece of the handwriting to Shane's brother, who confirmed it was him. He said they hadn't heard from Shane in about a year and had been battling drug issues.
Knapp talked to Shane's brother who said the nose, mouth, cheek and eyes jumped out at him when he looked at the facial approximation made.
The detective contacted the ME's Office to confirm the identity. He says they went to Lee Health and obtained X-ray records. They confirmed it was Shane Williams.
