Who were the Camille victims never identified?

 

 

Special Report

- Read more stories about Hurricane Camille

- Audio slideshow: Hear excerpts from Trooper Ed Tinsley's audio diary and see 1969 photos of the hurricane's aftermath

- Check out an interactive map of Camille's path and more

Map: Learn about the eight unidentified bodies recovered from the Nelson County area after Camille

Four decades have done little to clear up the identities of eight bodies found in and near Nelson County in the aftermath of the destruction caused by the remnants of Hurricane Camille.

Their remains, still unidentified and still unclaimed, rest in a cemetery in southern Richmond.

The doctors and a state trooper who worked to identify the bodies have various theories about who they were and how they perished. Other than the fact that four of the eight shared similar features and the same stomach content, though, little is known about them.

“Really, it’s just a mystery as to how eight people in this day and time could go unclaimed,” Amherst County Judge Michael Gamble said.

Gamble was a 20-year-old college student between military duty and a return to college when the storms hit. He had only been home in Lovingston for a few days. His father, Dr. Harry Gamble, identified nearly half of the bodies recovered.

Gamble said his father, who died in the 1980s, was fascinated by the unidentified bodies.

“He thought most of them were driving along Route 29 and just got swept away when one of those creeks turned into rivers,” Gamble said. “That was the prevailing theory.”

In the 1970 book, “Torn Land,” Harry Gamble is quoted as saying, “I think we were just about as positive as we could possibly be that they were not Nelson County residents.”

Retired Virginia State Police Trooper and Amherst County resident Ed Tinsley, who assisted with the identification process, said that while it is possible for a layman to match up descriptions of a few of the missing with the unidentified bodies, doctors ruled out the matches.

Tinsley also agreed that there is a strong possibility they were not Nelson County residents.

“We had people from Danville killed, truck drivers from North Carolina killed,” he said. “To not have anyone else from out of the area would be sort of fantastic.”

Rockfish Valley physician Robert Raynor and Lovingston dentist George Criswell, who worked to identify the bodies, both concluded that several of the eight were related when their stomach contents revealed they had eaten beans and hamburger the night before. Raynor and Criswell also agreed that four had facial features that they believed to be Hispanic.

Raynor took the conclusion a step farther. He believes the four were part of a family of migrant workers who were between stations.

“Everybody knew that they left… but didn’t know where they were going, so they were never reported missing,” he said.

Tinsley, who kept a diary of the events, said the bodies were sent to the Virginia State Anatomical Program in Richmond by the western district medical examiner on Oct. 3, 1969, 44 days after the flood. The Anatomical Program, which is typically a repository for cadavers used in medical training, cremated the bodies on Oct. 13, 1969, according to their records.

Published descriptions of the bodies kept in the state file of the four who shared the same meal show:

- A boy, about 17 years old, with high cheek bones and long blond or brown hair and a neatly trimmed blond moustache. He was found Aug. 24 below Schuyler in the Rockfish River.

- A girl, about 10 years old, with long blond or brown wavy hair weighing about 70 pounds and standing about 4 feet, 7 inches tall. She was found in the Rockfish River, about two miles above Howardsville on Aug. 31.

- A girl, about 6 years old, with hair similar to the 10-year-old’s, weighing about 60 pounds and standing about 3 feet, 10 inches tall. She was found in the James River, about seven or eight miles above Bremo Bluff on Aug. 31.

- A boy, about 12 to 14 years old, with long dark-brown hair, weighing between 125 and 135 pounds and standing between 5 feet, 2 inches and 5 feet, 4 inches tall. He was found half a mile below the railroad bridge on the Rockfish River in late August.

The other four victims are described as:

- A woman, about 35 to 40 years old, well groomed with light-blond hair, weighing between 140 and 145 pounds and standing about 5 feet, 5 inches tall. She was found at Woods Mill.

- A woman, about 70 years old, with long white hair, weighing between 140 and 150 pounds and standing about 5 feet, 2 inches tall. She was found at Buford Island, which sits in the James River between Wingina and Howardsville.

- A man in his 50s, with balding black hair, the worn teeth of a tobacco chewer, rough hands and a muscular, stocky build. His height was estimated at 5 feet, 11 inches. He was found in the Rockfish River near Howardsville.

- A woman in her late 40s or early 50s, with brown wavy hair, weighing between 160 and 180 pounds. She had had a hysterectomy. She was found in the Rockfish River below Woods Mill on Sept. 1.

The bodies were never identified or claimed, said Office of the Chief Medical Examiner State Administrator Rochelle Altholz.

Ironically, flooding in the 1980s and 1990s destroyed some of the records about the burial of the remains. They were disposed of either in the early 1980s or the mid 1990s, Altholz said.

The unmarked graves are scattered throughout the Maury Cemetery in Richmond, catalogued as Commonwealth of Virginia ashes, she said.