Human remains from 800 block of Jefferson in Cape positively identified

After weeks of testing, human remains found last month in an alleyway in Cape Girardeau have been identified as Jimmie Lee Lindell, a 37-year-old man from Charleston, Missouri, according to a Monday news release from the police department.

In the release, Sgt. Joey Hann stated there was no indication of trauma and the cause of Lindell’s death remains unknown at this time.

The remains were first located Oct. 25, when police were called to 800 block of Jefferson Avenue at approximately 1:07 p.m. for a report of a “possible body” in an alleyway running north in the direction of Good Hope Street.

In an October release, Hann said officers found “evident human remains,” which were “obscured from plain sight inside dense vegetation near a fence line.” Police were unable to confirm a positive identification on the remains because of the “advanced state of decomposition,” Hann wrote.

The investigation was then given to the Cape Girardeau County Coroner’s Office, where deputy coroner David Taylor began testing the remains and an identification was ultimately made using dental records.

Taylor said in his first days on the case, he did “old-fashioned investigation” work to obtain an idea of who the deceased may have been. In the following days, he obtained the possible party’s medical records and sent them to a forensic anthropologist in St. Louis where a dental identification was made with the St. Louis Medical Examiner’s Office.

In his 12 years of experience, the deputy coroner said he has never seen a case like this.