Man, In Coma 3 Years, Remains Mystery To End

John Doe, the only name that Sutter General Hospital officials could give a man in his 40s or 50s who remained unidentified and in a coma since being struck by a motorcycle more than three years ago, has died.

Fed intravenously and his limbs exercised periodically by nurses, he died at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday of coronary artery disease, said hospital spokesman Robert Tokunaga.

Law enforcement officials in March 1994 sought the public’s help in identifying the man, who had been struck in September 1993 by a motorcycle in Stockton. He was taken to a Stockton hospital with severe head injuries and later to Sutter. There, he has remained on the hospital’s fifth floor.

There was no identification and no fingerprints on file with law enforcement officials. John Doe’s case was profiled in May 1994 on the TV program “Unsolved Mysteries.”

And his identity remains a mystery.

The Sacramento County Coroner’s office plans to bury the man. As for a location, “we don’t know at this point,” said spokeswoman Tonya Winkler.

For poor people who can’t afford a burial, the Coroner’s office has a cremation program. “We do not do that any more for unidentifieds,” Winkler said.