A John Doe’s exhumation in Leamington could end 51-year mystery for U.S. family

Author of the article:

Trevor Wilhelm

Lakeview Cemetery in Leamington is shown on Saturday, September 25, 2021. James Wilson was killed when the small plane he was riding in from Cleveland to Detroit crashed into Lake Erie Jan. 28, 1970. Officials will determine if he is buried in Leamington.
Lakeview Cemetery in Leamington is shown on Saturday, September 25, 2021. James Wilson was killed when the small plane he was riding in from Cleveland to Detroit crashed into Lake Erie Jan. 28, 1970. Officials will determine if he is buried in Leamington. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor Star

Five decades haven’t dulled the pain, or the need to know.

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A 51-year-old mystery could soon come to a close when Ontario Provincial Police exhume a John Doe discovered at Point Pelee in 1970.

If all goes as planned, the effort will end a lifetime of unanswered questions for an American family still searching for the body of their father. Jim Wilson, 48, was the only victim of a 1970 Lake Erie plane crash who was never recovered.

For his family, the thought he might have been lying unnamed in a Leamington grave all these years is at once encouraging and agonizing.

Police and the coroner’s office will dig up the John Doe, in Plot L33-3-4-17 at Lakeview Cemetery, on Wednesday.

I’ve decided, let’s bring him home

“I’m emotional about it,” Stephen Wilson, who was 17 when his dad died, said from Asheville, NC. “I’m a 70-year-old man and it’s like yesterday. More because it’s come to the forefront lately and the possibility my father was up there all this time. It just adds to the aggravation and the angst over the situation. I miss my father. That’s the bottom line.”

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James Wilson, 48, was killed when the small plane he was riding in from Cleveland to Detroit crashed into Lake Erie Jan. 28, 1970. Officials will determine if he is buried in Leamington.
James Wilson, 48, was killed when the small plane he was riding in from Cleveland to Detroit crashed into Lake Erie Jan. 28, 1970. Officials will determine if he is buried in Leamington. Photo by Wilson family /Windsor Star

James Wilson, a family man, business executive and Second World War veteran, died along with eight other people when their plane smashed through nine inches of Lake Erie ice on Jan. 28, 1970.

As the general manager of the McDowell-Wellman Engineering Company, Wilson was flying from Cleveland to Detroit for a groundbreaking ceremony on a new building.

TAG airlines flight 730, a nine-passenger DeHavilland Dove, took off from Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport at 7:38 a.m. Wilson was scheduled for a later flight, but decided shortly before takeoff to switch to the earlier departure.

At 7:49 a.m., the plane disappeared from radar. There was no distress signal.

Divers found the wreckage and bodies, including Wilson in the tail section, the next day.

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Actual recovery efforts took longer. But the bodies had been recovered by May when the lake thawed. Except for one.

“The only body not found was my father-in-law, James Wilson,” said Anita Wilson, who lives about an hour south of Boston. “When they went down and counted heads with the divers, they saw them all at one point. Then when they went down again, the tail section had floated away. They never found the tail section.”

James Wilson was killed when the small plane he was riding in from Cleveland to Detroit crashed into Lake Erie Jan. 28, 1970. Officials will determine if he is buried in Leamington.
James Wilson was killed when the small plane he was riding in from Cleveland to Detroit crashed into Lake Erie Jan. 28, 1970. Officials will determine if he is buried in Leamington. Photo by Wilson family /Windsor Star

Anita is married to Mark Wilson, one of five siblings still searching for answers. She said her husband, who was 16 when Wilson died, still can’t talk about it without breaking down.

“My husband and his family have been going through hell for almost 52 years, not knowing where their father is,” she said. “I just decided to make it my mission that we’re going to find him and bring him home. If he’s out there at all, we’re going to bring him home.”

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Norfolk County OPP and the Ontario coroner’s office are coordinating efforts to exhume the John Doe.

“We’re really hoping it’s him and it’s going to be bring closure to this family who has been without their loved one since 1970,” said Det. Sgt. Michael Wilfong with the Norfolk County OPP detachment.

His office inadvertently re-energized the Wilson case in 2019 with a media release about a skull bone that had recently been found in Lake Erie.

Leanne Dunner, Anita’s daughter, came across the media release in the U.S. Anita had her doubts after five decades. But she got on the phone to ask if it could be her father-in-law.

Newspaper clipping from 1970 reporting on the death of James Wilson,
Newspaper clipping from 1970 reporting on the death of James Wilson, Photo by Wilson family /Windsor Star

“My investigator said ‘no it’s not, but tell me your story,’” said Wilfong. “He took the ball and ran with it. He did a lot of really good work. I know it’s taken time and I know that was challenging for the family. But I don’t think that should take away from the hard work the detective did to get to this point.”

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He said Det. Const. Jon Van Brugge worked with Ontario Forensic Pathology Services, going through records and autopsy reports still available from back then, and was able to link the Wilson and John Doe cases.

Anita said she learned Sept. 14, on what would have been Wilson’s 100th birthday, that the Point Pelee John Doe would be exhumed. She received a letter from Ontario’s Chief Coroner Dirk Huyer stating he was making the order. He noted in the letter the cause of death was drowning.

“The disinterment is for the purpose of examination and obtaining a DNA sample to support identification of the remains,” the letter stated.

Anita, who never met her father-in-law, has also been running her own investigation for the last several years.

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“I’ve decided, let’s bring him home,” she said. “It’s time.”

Drawing of his first wife by James Wilson.
Drawing of his first wife by James Wilson. Photo by Wilson family /Windsor Star

Police in towns and cities around Lake Erie likely know her name well.

“I just decided I’m going to call whoever I can call,” said Anita. “I called all the VA hospitals in all the different states. I have his navy records. I have the (National Transportation and Safety Board) reports. I just decided it’s time to bring him home. I want him to be brought home this year so his family can finally be at peace.”

She hit a few walls. The uninterested representative of one Ohio police department asked her why she was bothering after so many years.

But she said she’s thankful that other agencies, including the U.S. National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), the OPP and the Ontario coroner’s office have been more than helpful.

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She has a folder four inches thick containing every news story and photo she could find about the crash, and documentation of every phone call, letter and email she sent or received about the case.

Anita was surprised to learn there were no missing-person reports for Wilson anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. She said her late mother-in-law, Elise, who died in 1997, was never told to file a report.

“So I filed them all.”

Lakeview Cemetery in Leamington is shown on Saturday, September 25, 2021. James Wilson was killed when the small plane he was riding in from Cleveland to Detroit crashed into Lake Erie Jan. 28, 1970.
Lakeview Cemetery in Leamington is shown on Saturday, September 25, 2021. James Wilson was killed when the small plane he was riding in from Cleveland to Detroit crashed into Lake Erie Jan. 28, 1970. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor Star

For the first time in five decades, there was an official missing-person report for 48-year-old James Wilson. And DNA samples to compare with any potential remains.

NamUs told her it was vital to have that. So in Dec. 2017, when the family gathered on Cape Cod for Christmas, Wilson’s sons went down to the local sheriff’s office and gave DNA samples, which were sent to Canadian authorities.

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But Anita’s quest also led to a heartbreaking revelation — the mystery might have been easily solved only weeks after Wilson’s body disappeared with the plane’s tail section.

Last month, the family learned of a Windsor Star article from March 30, 1970, reporting that someone had discovered a body on the beach while out for a walk at Point Pelee National Park.

The story stated police were looking into the possibility it was one of the people who died in the Jan. 28 crash. At that point, none of the bodies had been recovered, according to the story. But that appears to be where the investigation ended.

“Nobody connected that,” said Stephen. “It just blows my mind. Who didn’t do what they should have done at the time? I guess that’s one of the things I’m struggling with the most.”

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James Wilson.
James Wilson. Photo by Wilson family /Windsor Star

The article stated the John Doe was 45 to 60 years old. He weighed 125 to 140 pounds and was between five-foot-five and five-foot-seven.

According to the RCMP’s National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains, the body had been in the water anywhere from one week to six months.

The database describes the John Doe, who was wearing blue Sears dress pants and a red cotton t-shirt, as having balding grey hair.

It all lines up.

“It’s very, very sad, that if his body was found March 29 of ’70, that would have only been seven or eight weeks from the crash,” said Anita. “And his family has been wondering what’s going on for all these years. It’s very sad.”

On top of that, she said police told her that Wilson’s dental records appear to match up to the John Doe. Her father-in-law’s 1944 dental records are among the documents Anita has tucked away in her folder.

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Lakeview Cemetery in Leamington is shown on Saturday, September 25, 2021. James Wilson was killed when the small plane he was riding in from Cleveland to Detroit crashed into Lake Erie Jan. 28, 1970. The area shown here is where the body of an unidentified person is buried.
Lakeview Cemetery in Leamington is shown on Saturday, September 25, 2021. James Wilson was killed when the small plane he was riding in from Cleveland to Detroit crashed into Lake Erie Jan. 28, 1970. The area shown here is where the body of an unidentified person is buried. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor Star

“He was missing nine teeth according to the dental records that I have, and he had partial plates,” said Anita. “This body is missing those exact nine teeth.”

“Dental records don’t lie. And like I said, his height, his weight and his hair colour. They said the body was balding and had grey hair.”

If they do confirm the Point Pelee John Doe is James Wilson, the family hopes to return him to the U.S. and put his remains at the National Cemetery in Bourne, Massachusetts.

Wilson, a navy man, served throughout Second World War. Stephen said his dad operated a landing craft “in all the major battles in the Pacific,” including Okinawa, Milne Bay and Iwo Jima.

One the family’s cherished possessions is their father’s sea bag. It’s adorned with a picture he drew of his then new bride and a list of the battles he fought in.

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“My father, as far as I’m concerned, was pretty much a war hero,” said Stephen. “He needs to be brought back home and put into a national cemetery with the rest of his family now. His wife and his brothers are there.”

Lakeview Cemetery in Leamington is shown on Saturday, September 25, 2021. James Wilson was killed when the small plane he was riding in from Cleveland to Detroit crashed into Lake Erie Jan. 28, 1970. The area shown here is where the body of an unidentified person is buried.
Lakeview Cemetery in Leamington is shown on Saturday, September 25, 2021. James Wilson was killed when the small plane he was riding in from Cleveland to Detroit crashed into Lake Erie Jan. 28, 1970. The area shown here is where the body of an unidentified person is buried. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor Star

As their mission to answer the question that has plagued them their whole lives potentially draws to a close, Wilson’s sons are once again reliving the pain of old wounds and lost opportunities.

“He never knew his grandchildren except for one child,” said Stephen. “He had one grandchild who he was thrilled with. He has a dozen more since. I’m sorry that he’s missed all that. That’s the kind of stuff I think about.”

Anita said reliving the tragedy that forever changed them all will be worth it if her husband and his siblings can finally stop wondering.

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“My husband’s family has suffered all this time wondering what happened to him, where he is,” said Anita. “It will be closure and peace for the family. And I hope to give other families hope that they can do the same process and maybe find their loved ones.”

Wilfong cautioned it could take months to get the DNA results.

“There’s a lot of reason to believe it could be him, but we can’t say that for sure right now,” he said. “The Ontario Provincial Police have been working closely with the Ontario Forensic Pathology Services and the Office of the Chief Coroner and for us to be at a point where we’re exhuming the body is the result of a lot of hard work by everyone involved.”

But Anita is as confident as she is determined.

“I had a dream recently where I heard a man’s voice,” she said. “What I was told was the words ‘finally home.’ Then I heard, ‘finally I’m coming home to my family.’ It was almost like his spirit was telling me this. That’s how I take it. It would be like a burden off my husband and his brothers’ chests to know that their father is finally at peace.”

twilhelm@postmedia.com

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