Advances in fingerprint technology have helped authorities identify the remains of a man found 43 years ago floating in a canal in rural San Joaquin County.

Edward Donald Raymond, 34, who apparently had ties to the Bay Area, had a gunshot wound to his right shoulder when his body was found on July 13, 1981 in Beaver Slough near Thornton, according to the San Joaquin Sheriff’s Office.

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The slough is in an unincorporated area of San Joaquin County along Interstate Highway 5, midway between Stockton and Sacramento.

The body was badly decomposed and the man was described as Black, with a tattoo on the left arm reading “Black is Beautiful”, and was wearing only white swim shorts with red and blue stripes.

Raymond was recently identified using advancements in fingerprint technology, the sheriff’s office said Monday.
The only information available about him was an arrest in 1976 by the San Francisco Police Department, where he provided an address in Oakland.

Raymond was born Feb. 21, 1947, but he also went by the alias of Edward Wilson, born July 21, 1948, authorities said.

When the body was found, the sheriff’s office said it might be connected with a white or beige Cadillac that was seen in the area days earlier. The driver of the vehicle resembled the victim, but no vehicle or additional clothing were found at the scene.

The sheriff’s office is hoping that someone may come forward to help solve the case.

“We are asking for any information that may help us better understand what happened to Edward Raymond and bring justice to this case,” the sheriff’s office said in news release.

Anyone with information about the case can call the sheriff’s non-emergency number at (209) 468-4400.

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