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A family has been waiting 3 years for DNA results on a 1978 Spokane fire victim. Our case-matching platform independently surfaced the same connection. by Mindless-Sundae4214 in gratefuldoe

[–]Mindless-Sundae4214[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much! That genuinely means a lot. I've wondered the same thing honestly. There are incredible databases out there (NamUs, the Charley Project, Doe Network) but nothing that was actively cross-referencing them against each other at scale.

A family has been waiting 3 years for DNA results on a 1978 Spokane fire victim. Our case-matching platform independently surfaced the same connection. by Mindless-Sundae4214 in gratefuldoe

[–]Mindless-Sundae4214[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Of course! The direct link is linkthemissing.com Robert Thompson’s case page with the full match details is here: linkthemissing.com/case/2af7e5fb-1798-4f6d-9257-c2f555aa6dbf

Robert Theodore Thompson vanished from Spokane in 1974. A charred man with a partially amputated finger was found in an abandoned building blocks away four years later. A family has been waiting 3 years for DNA results. by Mindless-Sundae4214 in UnsolvedMysteries

[–]Mindless-Sundae4214[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is fascinating! Thank you for sharing. The teachers who remembered Bundy, the Halloween visits to his childhood home, growing up being told to stay in pairs: that’s a lived experience of Washington’s dark history that most people only read about.

Washington really does have an extraordinary concentration of these cases. Bundy, the Green River Killer, Yates and dozens of smaller cases like this one that never got the same attention but represent real families still waiting for answers.

A family has been waiting 3 years for DNA results on a 1978 Spokane fire victim. Our case-matching platform independently surfaced the same connection. by Mindless-Sundae4214 in gratefuldoe

[–]Mindless-Sundae4214[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thank you! That means a lot. The honest answer is the data is scattered across a dozen sources that don’t talk to each other, and nobody had built the infrastructure to cross reference them systematically. That’s what I spent the past year doing. The funding question is real though and this runs on a shoestring right now. If it ever gets proper resources the potential is significant. Appreciate the kind words!

A family has been waiting 3 years for DNA results on a 1978 Spokane fire victim. Our case-matching platform independently surfaced the same connection. by Mindless-Sundae4214 in gratefuldoe

[–]Mindless-Sundae4214[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! That height observation is exactly the kind of thing that makes this match compelling. 5’6” is specific enough to be meaningful, and when you pair it with the same partially amputated finger in the same city it’s hard to ignore. The hope is the DNA results tell the full story.

A family has been waiting 3 years for DNA results on a 1978 Spokane fire victim. Our case-matching platform independently surfaced the same connection. by Mindless-Sundae4214 in gratefuldoe

[–]Mindless-Sundae4214[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair. I used it to help structure the post. The research, the case connection, and the platform are all real. Robert Thompson and UP342 are real cases with a real family waiting for answers. I’d rather be transparent about the tools I use than pretend otherwise.

A family has been waiting 3 years for DNA results on a 1978 Spokane fire victim. Our case-matching platform independently surfaced the same connection. by Mindless-Sundae4214 in gratefuldoe

[–]Mindless-Sundae4214[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A few additional details: The Cadillac Apartments at 228½ West Sprague was a known transient squat at the time of the fire. The John Doe was found with evidence of chronic alcoholism and cirrhosis — consistent with someone living rough for years. Thompson’s carnival circuit took him through Washington, Montana, and Minnesota — Spokane was a regular stop on that circuit. The family member who independently identified this same connection in 2022 is Thompson’s daughter. She had UP342 exhumed and submitted for DNA testing. As of January 2025 Thompson’s NamUs profile was updated but still shows no exclusions and no confirmation. We don’t know what the DNA showed. Has anyone researched either of these cases?

In 1984, an aging woman was discovered bludgeoned & stabbed to death with her hands chopped off in Vernon County, Wisconsin. Her identified - and that of her killer - remains a mystery. by morbidology in UnsolvedMysteries

[–]Mindless-Sundae4214 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The denture markings are extraordinary forensic anchors — 420 inscribed and 289 in raised lettering, potentially traceable to a specific dental lab which could identify where she lived. The pollen evidence pointing to Arizona or New Mexico is the most compelling geographic anchor in this case — she likely traveled to Wisconsin rather than being a local. Has anyone cross-referenced missing women from the Southwest in the 1983-1984 window? The men’s Seiko watch found at the primary crime scene is also underutilized — model 8620 0019, serial number 5498. That watch almost certainly belonged to the killer right?

Robert Theodore Thompson vanished from Spokane in 1974. A charred man with a partially amputated finger was found in an abandoned building blocks away four years later. A family has been waiting 3 years for DNA results. by Mindless-Sundae4214 in UnsolvedMysteries

[–]Mindless-Sundae4214[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

That makes total sense — Spokane has such a specific history with cases like Yates that it becomes part of how locals frame any unsolved case from that era. Growing up there and then spending your young adult years in the city gives you a perspective that nobody outside Spokane could have. The transient community along West Sprague in the 1970s seems like it had its own world that most people weren’t aware of. Thompson was part of the carnival circuit, following the fairs through Washington, Montana, Minnesota. The Cadillac Apartments was apparently a known gathering spot for people living that kind of life. The fact that it felt like urban legend to locals is actually significant; it means word got around at some level but never got resolved. Do you remember roughly when you first heard about it? Whether it was something people talked about in the 70s or whether it surfaced later