BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. (WKRG) -- Who are we without a name? For Amanda Galleher, a name is everything. "I think that is the only thing you have left is a name," said Galleher.
For more than two decades, in a grave marked "Unknown Male," a man known only as Seminole Doe. He had been pulled from Styx River 22 years ago. The only thing to help identify him was half a dozen tattoos. With few answers, the case went cold and then reopened in 2019.
"We could probably figure out who it was through the tattoos and social media, and that's exactly what happened," says Capt. Clint Cadenhead with the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office.
Another search had already been underway for years by the man's daughter. "A lot of years I would get angry looking for him because I was like why he's not looking for me. Why am I wasting my time on him? But, I never gave up."
Back in April, those tattoos did help identify him along with DNA from a sister in Texas. His name is Daniel Muniz, Jr., "Shorty" to his friends. His daughter visited his grave for the first time Tuesday in Foley. "It bothers me to think that people think all the time that how does a person go unidentified for 22 years do they not have a family, are they not loved?"
The cold case has now been solved but there was something more Amanda had to do. "Everybody deserves a name," she said. So Tuesday, she and her family gathered in the city cemetery and replaced the "Unknown" grave marker with a new stone. Giving her father back his name. He is no longer "Seminole Doe." He is Daniel Muniz, Jr., a father, a brother, a husband and never forgotten.
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