People and incidents
Robert Korman (1972)
Sources compared and paraphrased
Hunters found nearly skeletal remains in Pinewald in December 1972; eyeglasses recovered with a metal detector helped identify the dead man as Robert Korman, 78.
Discovery and identification
Members of the Berkeley Rod and Gun Club hunting small game found the fully clothed remains at about 4:40 p.m. on December 7 in woods near Eastern Boulevard and Fourth Street, off Route 9 in Berkeley Township’s Pinewald section. Police estimated death seven or eight months earlier. The remains went to Community Memorial Hospital in Toms River; Medical Examiner Walter E. Corrigan could not determine a cause because little tissue remained.
Investigators identified the man as Korman, of East Bay Avenue in what the clipping calls Union Township. He had last been seen March 28 by his cousin, Frances Kopcho, after eating a sandwich and having a drink at Korman’s Bar and Grill on Bay Avenue in Bayville. Dover Township police later found his glasses with a metal detector; Kopcho recognized them. County Detective Emmet Gaunt also sought confirmation through Korman’s dentures. A related missing-person item says his sister Lorraine Collins of New York offered a reward, described him as about 5 feet 7 inches, unable to walk well and subject to memory loss, and said he wore a green jacket, plaid shirt, brown trousers, black shoes, and glasses.
The source record additionally notes a 1955 suicide attempt, but the supplied clipping does not establish its relationship to this death.
Sources
Three unidentified 1972 newspaper reports on the discovery, tentative identification, and confirmation, plus an earlier missing-person notice. Dates are inferred from the reported December 7 discovery; mastheads and pages are absent.