Koppelman is not a detective or a forensic anthropologist. She left certain things unsaid: As usual, she was hoping for a fast turnaround. “Carl, this is Elizabeth from the Spokane M.E.’s office,” she wrote. So, the investigator went to Facebook and messaged the one person she thought could make the dead man look as he had in life: Carl Koppelman, a 50-something accountant then living in El Segundo, California, in the suburban house where he lovingly cared for his ailing mother. A name is the very least that should accompany the dead when they are put to rest. But there is also the question of dignity. Without a name, she couldn’t inform the man’s family of his death or return his remains, and the police would have a tough time investigating foul play. Nelson sees each unidentified body as a problem both practical and existential. “Even if this were your family member, you wouldn’t have recognized him,” Nelson told me. A tall, bald man with a long gray beard, he carried no wallet and offered few clues as to his identity. He appeared to have been dead for at least two weeks, and that time in the water had radically altered the shape of his face, lips and eyes.
An investigator in the Spokane County, Washington, medical examiner’s office at the time, Nelson was in the morgue, looking down at the body of a man whom authorities had retrieved from a logjam in the Spokane River. Which is why, in June 2016, Elizabeth Nelson had a problem.
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