VANCOUVER, B.C. - The Vancouver Police Department is asking for the public’s help to identify a man who was found in medical distress on a sidewalk near Keefer and Columbia streets on September 7 and died in hospital four days later, on September 11.
Investigators do not suspect foul play and are not conducting a criminal investigation. Attempts to identify the man through DNA, missing person reports and police databases have been unsuccessful, so police have released a photo of a distinctive anchor tattoo on his upper left arm, shown above, in the hope that someone recognizes it.
What police know about the man
- He appears to be white
- He is believed to be between 45 and 60 years old
- He weighed about 180 pounds
- He had short grey and brown hair and brown eyes
- He wore dentures
- He had a tattoo of an anchor on his upper left arm
He was found near Keefer and Columbia streets, at the edge of Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside, on September 7, and was taken to hospital, where he passed away on September 11.
Not a criminal investigation
Police stress that this is not a criminal case. There is no suggestion anyone harmed the man, and nobody is being sought in connection with his death. The only goal of the appeal is to learn his name so his family can be told what happened to him.
Until he is identified, someone, a family member, a friend, a former coworker, may be waiting for word of a man who never came home, not knowing he died in a Vancouver hospital in September. Identification appeals like this one are how police close that gap: a single recognizing detail, a tattoo, a piece of clothing, a remembered face, is often what finally gives an unidentified person their name back.
The VPD’s Missing Person Unit is the department’s team dedicated to locating missing people and identifying unknown persons. Its investigators have already checked DNA samples, missing person reports and police databases without success, which is why the tattoo photo has now been released publicly.
Do you recognize this tattoo?
Anyone who recognizes the anchor tattoo, or who believes they may know who this man was, is asked to contact the VPD’s Missing Person Unit at 604-717-2530 or by email at missing.vpd@vpd.ca.
Even a partial memory, where he may have lived, worked, or spent time, could be the detail investigators need.
Source: Vancouver Police Department news release, “VPD seeking assistance in identifying deceased man,” October 26, 2026.
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