Employees at the Santa Clara County Coroner's Office wheel off a body so badly decomposed that police could not determine its sex about 4:30 p.m. Thursday. A Caltrans clean-up crew found the body near U.S. 101 and San Martin Avenue.
The decomposed body Caltrans workers found Thursday is likely a Gilroy man who lived only 100 yards away from the spot where he crashed his motorcycle four months ago, friends and relatives said. At the time of the crash, the man - who had been in and out of prison - might have been drunk and fleeing from Morgan Hill police, police said.
Archie Cole, 43, disappeared last June and hasn't been seen since. Faith Dunn of Macon, Ga., last heard from her brother June 21 - Father's Day. Birthdays and holidays came and went without a word from the brother who faithfully called for every special occasion.
"Two birthdays and an anniversary went by and he didn't call," Dunn said. "There were certain days that he never missed calling."
After four months of searching, filing a missing persons report and waking up from bad dreams, Dunn wasn't surprised when she got a call from Cole's wife with the news that her brother had been found dead in the dry brush to the left of southbound U.S. 101 at the San Martin off-ramp.
"I'm confident that it's him," Dunn said matter-of-factly.
Though police are still working to confirm the body's identity through dental records or DNA testing - the body was so badly decomposed police could not identify it through fingerprinting and originally couldn't even tell its sex - they notified Cole's family of the possibility that it might be their husband and father, California Highway Patrol Officer Jaime Rios said. In addition, a debit card bearing Cole's name was found at the crash site.
"With the state the body was in, it would be hard to identify him," Rios said. "We haven't confirmed that it's his body or not. I couldn't put a percentage on how certain we are. Right now we're just waiting for confirmation from the coroner."
Since the county coroner is "pretty backed up right now," Rios estimated it could be two to three weeks before they identify the body. Police have not contacted any other families other than the Coles, Rios said.
Cole's wife could not be reached for comment.
"It had to have been him," said Wendy Davenport, Cole's former roommate at the Kimball Court residence in San Martin that he shared with her and several other people since he moved from Gilroy in December.
"I don't know how it's possible," she said. "How did nobody see him? The airplanes fly over there every day."
But in the four months since Cole disappeared, Davenport said she never noticed his body or motorcycle lying in the patch of brush that's visible from the backyard of their house and she never thought to look there.
"We went looking for him in ditches," she said. "Who would have thought he was that close to home?"
Although the events of his last few hours are still sketchy, friends and family said Cole crashed his motorcycle late June while being pursued by Morgan Hill police. Rios would not release details of the crash but Morgan Hill Police are assisting in the investigation into Cole's death, as he might have been involved in a pursuit with police that started in Morgan Hill, according to Detective Ken Howard.
A police report from June 28 said an unidentified motorcyclist wearing a white helmet and red jacket left M&H Tavern on Monterey Road and appeared to be intoxicated. The motorcyclist was followed by a citizen who called local police, who dispatched CHP officers. The citizen was unable to keep up when the motorcycle exited from Tennant Avenue onto U.S. 101.
The pursuit started about 12:26 a.m., and the report does not indicate police ever caught up with the motorcyclist. Minutes later, officers stopped a motorcyclist at a ramp on the west side of the intersection of San Martin Avenue and U.S. 101, but determined that vehicle was not the one involved in the chase.
However, Howard said it would be "premature" to assume Cole was the motorcyclist involved in the chase, as the investigation is ongoing. Howard confirmed that "secondhand" information gathered by officers indicates that Cole "may have been involved" in a pursuit with police before his death. He did not indicate what date the chase might have happened.
Cole has been arrested "a few times" in Morgan Hill since 1986, mostly on suspicion of drug and traffic related crimes, Howard said.
Cole had been "in and out of trouble his whole life," including a two-year stint in San Quentin serving out a sentence for drug charges, Dunn said. He appeared on the Dispatch's blotter in 2008 for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
But friends and neighbors remembered a "good guy."
"He was a wonderful man, a very nice and helping person," Davenport said. "We all run into issues in our lives but he was dealing with them and doing good."
"He went out of his way for us," said Dan Maquinalez, a neighbor of the Coles when they lived on Fourth Street. "He was a good guy."
Sara Suddes Sara Suddes is the education reporter for South Valley Newspapers. Send her an email or (408) 847-7158.
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