Death was suicide, police believe

Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)

2002-03-15

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Death was suicide, police believe ROGUE RIVER - A man whose body was found last week in a rural area near here committed suicide, police said Wednesday. A .22-caliber rifle was found along with the skeletal remains of a man police believe is William Charles Bobo, who was 63 years old when he disappeared from his rural Rogue River home in March 1995. Medical examiners found a bullet hole in the man's skull. The man's identity has not been determined because no dental records for Bobo have turned up, said Jackson County sheriff's Lt. Dewey Patten. The man had false teeth for the upper portion of his mouth. However, detectives never found remains of his lower jaw, Patten said. Bobo's family members said he also had lower dentures, but the dentist who made them more than 30 years ago died, and his practice was sold. Patten said the dental records most likely were discarded years ago. "We're pretty sure who it is, but we may never know for sure," said Patten. In lieu of identifying the man by his teeth, medical examiners will be looking for fractures on his lower legs, Patten said. Bobo's ex-wife, who lives in Southern California, told sheriff's deputies that Bobo - a U.S. Army paratrooper in his youth - broke one of his legs in a parachute jump. The woman told deputies that she hadn't heard from Bobo in years and didn't even know he had been reported missing. Patten didn't comment Wednesday on why the man apparently killed himself. The remains were found scattered in thick brush growing in an old irrigation ditch not far from Bobo's former home. A hiker walking along private land at the 8500 block of Rogue River Highway on Saturday afternoon found a tennis shoe filled with human bones. He called sheriff's deputies around 2 p.m. A search of the area revealed a human torso, leg bones, a skull and clothing.   Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.