'Douglas Baker' John Doe documents

Robert Delaware filed this request with the Clark County Coroner's Office of Clark County, NV.
Submitted May 6, 2017
Est. Completion None
Status
Awaiting Appeal
Tags

Communications

From: Robert Delaware

Subject: Nevada Public Records Act Request: 'Douglas Baker' John Doe documents

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Nevada Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

Any autopsy reports, death certificates, post mortem photographs, or final reports relating the death of a John Doe discovered on February 16th of 1987 in a Las Vegas hotel room. This John Doe checked into a hotel using the alias of "Douglas Baker" and has remained unidentified for 30 years.

This John Doe is listed in NamUs and UP #8137: https://www.identifyus.org/en/cases/8137

I've long been interested in this case, and intend to widely distribute any information released onto forums such as websleuths.com and reddit for the purposes of generating interest in the case. I have read through the policy for requesting documents on your website, which I could not understand, so I am therefore filing a FOIA request.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Robert Delaware

From: MuckRock

Subject: RE: Nevada Public Records Act Request: 'Douglas Baker' John Doe documents

Email

Hi there,

This request was submitted via email, but it's never been acknowledged. It would be greatly appreciated if your office could confirm that this letter has been received at this time.

Thank you.

_____________________

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Nevada Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

Any autopsy reports, death certificates, post mortem photographs, or final reports relating the death of a John Doe discovered on February 16th of 1987 in a Las Vegas hotel room. This John Doe checked into a hotel using the alias of "Douglas Baker" and has remained unidentified for 30 years.

This John Doe is listed in NamUs and UP #8137: https://www.identifyus.org/en/cases/8137

I've long been interested in this case, and intend to widely distribute any information released onto forums such as websleuths.com and reddit for the purposes of generating interest in the case. I have read through the policy for requesting documents on your website, which I could not understand, so I am therefore filing a FOIA request.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Robert Delaware

From: Clark County Coroner's Office

Subject: RE: Nevada Public Records Act Request: 'Douglas Baker' John Doe documents

Email

To whom it may concern,

I apologize for the confusion as this is the first request that I am aware of. We are looking into the details of this case as we need to search our microfilm database. Please contact me at 702-455-3385. I have a few questions of you that may help me locate this case.

Thank you,

John

[cid:image001.jpg@01D110CA.41C12430]
John Fudenberg, D-ABMDI, Coroner
Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner
1704 Pinto Lane
Las Vegas, NV 89106
702-455-3210
fud@ClarkCountyNV.gov<mailto:fud@ClarkCountyNV.gov>
www.ClarkCountyNV.gov<http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/>

Accredited by:
[NAME Logo(Vector) (2) copy] [cid:image006.jpg@01CE9812.5D8E6750]

From: Robert Delaware

Subject: RE: Nevada Public Records Act Request: 'Douglas Baker' John Doe documents

Email

Hello Mr. Fudenberg-

I filed this request. Unfortunately, I don’t live in the United States and I don’t make many long distance phone calls. I do use Skype and Facebook Messenger. I don’t believe I have much to add about this request. As I remember, my theory was that this man could be a man who was reported missing out of San Francisco in the fall of 1986.

I believe that this case is solvable, and that the release of this information will help in identification.

Please feel free to contact if you have any questions.

From: Clark County Coroner's Office

Subject: FW: Nevada Public Records Act Request: 'Douglas Baker' John Doe documents

Email

Mr. Delaware,
To the extent that the records you requested exist, we are not able to provide them to you as they are not public documents.

Dan Kulin
Clark County Office of Public Communications
(702) 455-5534 – office
(702) 376-3764 – cell

Clark County Coroner's Office
Nevada Public Records Act Office
6th floor
500 South Grand Central Parkway
Las Vegas, NV 89155

January 21, 2019

This is a follow up to a previous request:

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Nevada Public Records Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 6, 2017. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>
Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/accounts/agency_login/clark-county-coroner-8511/douglas-baker-john-doe-documents-36730/?email=Nicole.Charlton%40clarkcountynv.gov&uuid-login=8857f95c-39ff-4293-9fe5-408e4685f9a6#agency-reply
Is this email coming to the wrong contact? Something else wrong? Use the above link to let us know.

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 36730
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.

---

On Aug. 17, 2017:
Hi there,

This request was submitted via email, but it's never been acknowledged. It would be greatly appreciated if your office could confirm that this letter has been received at this time.

Thank you.

_____________________

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Nevada Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

Any autopsy reports, death certificates, post mortem photographs, or final reports relating the death of a John Doe discovered on February 16th of 1987 in a Las Vegas hotel room. This John Doe checked into a hotel using the alias of "Douglas Baker" and has remained unidentified for 30 years.

This John Doe is listed in NamUs and UP #8137: https://www.identifyus.org/en/cases/8137

I've long been interested in this case, and intend to widely distribute any information released onto forums such as websleuths.com and reddit for the purposes of generating interest in the case. I have read through the policy for requesting documents on your website, which I could not understand, so I am therefore filing a FOIA request.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Robert Delaware
---

On May 6, 2017:
To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Nevada Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

Any autopsy reports, death certificates, post mortem photographs, or final reports relating the death of a John Doe discovered on February 16th of 1987 in a Las Vegas hotel room. This John Doe checked into a hotel using the alias of "Douglas Baker" and has remained unidentified for 30 years.

This John Doe is listed in NamUs and UP #8137: https://www.identifyus.org/en/cases/8137

I've long been interested in this case, and intend to widely distribute any information released onto forums such as websleuths.com and reddit for the purposes of generating interest in the case. I have read through the policy for requesting documents on your website, which I could not understand, so I am therefore filing a FOIA request.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Robert Delaware

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>
Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/accounts/agency_login/clark-county-coroner-8511/douglas-baker-john-doe-documents-36730/?email=Nicole.Charlton%40clarkcountynv.gov&uuid-login=8857f95c-39ff-4293-9fe5-408e4685f9a6#agency-reply
Is this email coming to the wrong contact? Something else wrong? Use the above link to let us know.

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 36730
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.
[http://email.requests.muckrock.com/o/eJwNzEsOwiAQANDTyJLMAEVmwUJNXHoFg8OopLRE-km8vb4DvByHwasSDSABGkQABKdRX_0RwJtwDvaEjvDgoMtnk2Vd9LTx2BuPmtuk3tE8jFBmSzQ4EbCZOSRyCVIQT0-jZEql3kuOwXpLXvV4K9yq6Ms79bq2-Z9zTX3kts3rd971q-0_4MQuvw]

From: Robert Delaware

Subject: RE: Nevada Public Records Act Request: 'Douglas Baker' John Doe documents

Mail

Mr. Kulin-

Hello, and thank you for the reply.

Respectfully, I am appealing this decision. My original request was as broad as possible. The original request, filed in May of 2017, asked for, "Any autopsy reports, death certificates, post-mortem photographs, or final reports relating the death of a John Doe discovered on February 16th of 1987 in a Las Vegas hotel room."

According to a well documented court case from 2017, all autopsy reports are public records in the state of Nevada:

https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/coroners-office-cant-keep-death-records-secret-judge-rules/

The original request included language specifically asking for "any autopsy reports" for this unidentified person. These records are applicable under Nevada state law.

It is difficult to argue that there are privacy complaints in this instance, as post-mortem pictures of this person have already been released publicly, and the details of this person's passing are documented. In addition, this case is more than 30 years old.

I filed this request, and am filing this appeal, because I believe that there is a good chance that this John Doe could be one STEVEN ALLAN DAVIS: https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/30326/details

To date, there has never apparently been any evidence to discredit the possibility.

So, to reiterate, I am appealing this decision.

Thank you for taking the time to read this message.

-Robby Delaware

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