According to the paper’s account, the ship left Bridgeport, Connecticut for Philadelphia with around 60 tons of marble intended for Girard College. While cautioning that it was “possible that the crew had taken off, and that the vessel had been abandoned. Four days later, however, newspapers across the northeast confirmed the worst case outcome.

Remains of the "Scattered Man John Doe" began washing ashore in New Jersey in 1995 and went unidentified for the next three decades. Students at Ramapo College set about to solve the mystery.