Teen among dead in devastating California car crash finally identified

For decades, he’s been one of California’s most famous John Does: a man with wavy strawberry blond hair, the name “MARK” tattooed across his knuckles. And although clear, recognizable photographs of him existed, no one could figure out who he was — until now.

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The mystery began on June 2, 1978. That summer day, a group of teenagers piled into a Volkswagen Beetle in Riverside. The 17-year-old driver was reportedly drunk and, as he took a corner at high speed, he lost control of the car. The Beetle slammed into another vehicle, killing five people in the chaos. 

Dead in the backseat was a young man. In his pocket was an Oregon ID for Daniel Earl Bushnell. The next day, a police officer was dispatched to the Portland home of Bushnell’s mother. The news was bad, the officer told her. Her son had died the day before in a car crash in Riverside. 

The woman was astonished: Her son had left for work not 30 minutes prior. Riverside detectives soon got a phone call from their counterparts in Oregon, letting them know Bushnell wasn’t their dead passenger. The real Bushnell had his wallet stolen at a gas station a few months earlier. 

Along with the stolen ID, police found a receipt in the dead man’s possession. It was issued by the Reno Police Department; the man had posted bail a week prior for a petty larceny arrest. When Riverside police reached out to Reno for a mugshot, the photo matched their John Doe. But when he’d been arrested, he didn’t write down an address. It was another dead end. 

Unfortunately for investigators, no one who interacted with the man earlier that day knew anything concrete about him either. He’d arrived in town just hours before the fatal crash, hoping to hitchhike with local youths. His tattoos surely held clues though: “Gemini” on his right arm, “Mark” across his knuckles, “Jesse” with a heart on his left arm. His photo was distributed in the press, and police felt sure someone would recognize him.

They didn’t. Years passed, then decades. As the internet became a hub for amateur true crime sleuths, the case gained renewed interest. Although there are thousands of John Does across the nation, few have photographs so clear and tattoos so distinctive. Untold candidates were floated and dismissed, the Riverside John Doe remaining elusive. 

Last week, though, the Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner’s Bureau announced they’d finally found him. He wasn’t the grown man he appeared to be in his mugshot. He was Mark Alan Smith, an 18-year-old teenager. 

Smith was born in Joplin, Missouri in May 1960. His father, Rheubin “Bill” Smith, served on Midway during World War II, and his mother Shirley Legleiter was a Kansas native. Bill was 29 and Shirley was 17 when they married in 1955. When Mark was four, his parents and three siblings packed up and moved to Bakersfield. A family history noted the Smiths were “seriously planning to return to Missouri in the near future.”

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That wasn’t the path Mark Smith took. Still a teenager, he was arrested for minor crimes in Oregon and Reno, and by June 1978 he’d made his way to Riverside by hitchhiking. It’s believed he was trying to get across the country to see family when he hopped into the Beetle that fateful day. 

For over 40 years, his remains were unidentified but not forgotten. Last year, the Riverside County coroner exhumed the remains for DNA testing, and a profile was handed to GenGenies, a group that uses genealogical leads to match DNA profiles with possible families. They identified a family line in the Midwest that could be a match, leading to Smith’s identification by his surviving siblings. All this time, the tattoos were indeed clues: It was his own name and astrological sign inked on his body. 

Smith’s remains will be reunited with his family, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release last week. 

“On behalf of his sister, Pam Bright and family, we extend our sincere appreciation to GenGenies and the Department of Justice’s Missing Persons DNA Program, whose expertise and commitment contributed to this outcome,” the statement said. “Together, these efforts have finally given Mark Smith’s family the closure they have long awaited.”