The King County Medical Examiner’s Office is seeking the public’s help to identify a person who died in King County, and is releasing a sketch of the individual to assist.
The unidentified person was presumed to be homeless and found dead outdoors on January 12, 2019 in the 700 block of 1st Street, Kirkland. The cause of death is hypothermia due to environmental exposure and the manner of death is accident.
The person is described as a female, probable mixed-race, 30-60 years old, 5’5” and 149 pounds. She has an old caesarean section scar. At the time of her death, she was wearing an unnamed medical facility bracelet bearing the name “DOE, JO”, with an admit date of 1/10/19.
Anyone with information regarding this decedent is asked to call the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, Investigations Section, at 206.731.3232, ext. 5.
At any given time, there are about 40,000 unidentified remains in the United States – around 50 in King County. Washington state’s only forensic anthropologist, Dr. Kathy Taylor of the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, investigates these remains with help from law enforcement.
Sketches of additional unidentified individuals in King County are posted on the King County Medical Examiner’s Office unidentified remains web page. If you have information about any of these cases, please call the King County Medical Examiner’s Office at 206-731-3232, ext. 5.
Originally posted on February 19, 2019.
Thank you for sharing information on this, I think this article brought up some really interesting points, such as the fact that with hookah “users inhale 100 to 200 times as much smoke as they would from a single cigarette”. I was also very surprised about the serious risks surrounding Co poisoning from hookah, such as long-term neurological impairments and potentially death. These health impacts are ones that I think many youth may not be aware of, which made me question whose responsibility it should be informing the public of these health risks. What is the role of companies roles in educating and informing the consumer about the risks? Ethically, should hookah bars be required to post notices of the dangers of tobacco and CO poisoning in their venues? Or is burden on the consumers to find out this information for themselves? There also doesn’t seem to be many federal or state regulations surrounding hookah, besides the policy that most venues require customers to be 18+. Also, how does marketing come into play with this? We hear a lot about marketings effects on tobacco use with cigarettes, but never hookah. These are conversations we need to have because after long ‘anti-cigarette’ efforts, we see a lot of youth today turning to nicotine products such as juuls and hookah. These products, such as juuls, have less carcinogens but way more nicotine, and there’s still not enough public health research on the effects of these new products which are dominating the market.
It is atrocious that in a city with as much wealth and industry as Seattle, there are people dying on the streets due to lack of shelter and essential resources. Unfortunately, it does not come as a surprise that the woman described is likely a woman of color, as people of color are vastly disproportionately impacted by experiences of homelessness across the United States. With a changing climate and an increased risk for hazardous weather conditions such as what was experienced earlier this month, it is especially pertinent that the city work to ensure that this does not happen.
According to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, hypothermia can start setting in when it hits below 50 degrees Fahrenheit; however, in Seattle and in many cities across the country, cold weather shelters don’t open up until the temperature is much lower than that.
I work in Seattle at a day center for women experiencing homelessness, and this recent bout of snow was extremely damaging to our clients. There were even days where the day center had to remain closed because staff couldn’t get there safely. Transportation was an issue for individuals who had cars available, but even more so for individuals such as our clients who had to rely on public transportation and walking. Many of our clients are older and disabled, and faced an additional barrier of having to navigate the complicated emergency transit routes and icy sidewalks.
Situation such as these speak to the need for Seattle to prepare for the unexpected (better city snow preparedness) and have plentiful resource networks established and set up for our most vulnerable community members–before a state of emergency is established. Beyond this, however, Seattle needs to put an emphasis on creating higher density, affordable housing. We cannot continue to allow our neighbors to be pushed out into the streets due to lack of affordability and lack of housing in Seattle.
https://www.nhchc.org/resources/clinical/diseases-and-conditions/cold-related-injuries/