Hudson County John Doe (2007)
Hudson County John Doe (I will be referring to him as HCJD) was found floating in the Hudson River on May 3, 2007 in Jersey City, New Jersey. HCJD was estimated to be 30-50 years old, Black, 6’2-6’4, and 380-390 lbs. He was very severely decomposed with a post-mortem interval of a month. He had brown eyes, a goatee and mustache, and short curly black hair that was balding. It is believed he drowned, with nothing stating how he may’ve fallen in. He was found wearing a Sean John sweater, size XXXL, a purple/black/red/green Eddie Bauer Jacket, (it doesn’t state whether it was multicolored or if the jacket color was one of these.) he was also found wearing blue denim pants, a Sean John black belt, size 42, black thinsulated gloves, white socks, size 13 Nike sneakers, a Gold Tag Heuer brand watch, and a white metal ring. I’ve also included a screenshot of the area of the Hudson River where he was found. It doesn’t pinpoint an exact spot where he was found, but normally it will highlight an area. I put a red dot that indicates this area.
MY PERSONAL OPINION
As a New Jersey native and former Hudson County resident, it was not uncommon that someone would occasionally slip and fall into the Hudson River, and have their body be recovered. This is often why there are so many unidentified persons cases in Hudson County, because normally these people are transients. However, here’s what sticks out to me. He is wearing some brands that were popular back then, and from my interpretation, it seems as if he cared about his appearance. The jewelry is where it starts to get stranger. Heuer brand watches were normally pretty high-end, and if it was real (this could possibly be fake, stolen, counterfeit) then it could maybe suggest something that he wasn’t exactly homeless or transient? If a homeless person had something high end like that, maybe they’d try to pawn it? (I’m a minor so I don’t know a lot about world demographics and things like that.) I scoured through a few databases for men that may match HCJD’s description, but it’s unlikely he was reported missing. Not only is someone like this (Almost 400 lbs and 6’2-6’4) hard to miss, but wouldve been matched to a missing person easily and seamlessly. EDIT: My father is a native, he was born in 1984 and lived in Hudson County until 2019. I asked him about this he said that he believes they threw this man in the water because in his words “No big boy is jumping in the Hudson River”