SF Medical Examiner Seeks Help Identifying Man Found on New Year's Eve

“The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner seeks the public’s help to identify decedent,” the San Francisco OCME said as it appealed for tips on Jan. 29, 2026. The agency is trying to identify a man who was found unresponsive on the sidewalk in front of 5 Olive Street, near Larkin Street in the Tenderloin and was pronounced dead at the scene on Dec. 31, 2025.

The OCME describes the decedent as a white male, approximately 30 years old, about 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighing roughly 186 pounds. He had brown hair and green eyes. Investigators noted circular burn marks on his inner right forearm, most of which were fully healed and scarred. A sketch of the decedent was rendered by a San Francisco Police Department sketch artist and may be available through OCME or SFPD media channels.

Cause and manner of death remain pending while investigators continue identification efforts. “The OCME uses extensive investigative methods to identify decedents, including valid government-issued identification found on the person, fingerprint comparisons, witness interviews, and DNA testing,” the agency said, adding that “in the overwhelming majority of cases, the OCME can make a positive identification within 24 hours.” In this case, those standard methods have not yet produced a match, prompting the public appeal under case number 2025-1605.

For neighbors and service providers in the Tenderloin, the appeal underscores persistent gaps in how displaced and vulnerable San Franciscans are documented and supported. When people live without stable housing or lack government identification, routine public health and forensic systems face extra barriers to confirming identity and next-of-kin notification. That has implications for public health surveillance, timely death investigations, and equitable access to posthumous benefits and funeral arrangements for families.

Public safety and community organizations also rely on clear, prompt identifications to close cases involving overdose, violence, or untreated medical conditions. The OCME’s outreach is an entry point for matching medical examiner records with missing-person reports and for reducing the trauma of an unresolved death for families and neighbors.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Investigative Division at 415-641-2220 or by email at ocme@sfgov.org, and to reference case number 2025-1605. The OCME and SFPD may release the sketch to aid identification; reporters and community organizations can request the image and any additional identifying details from agency media contacts.

This appeal is part of the practical work of closing a life story and of highlighting systemic issues that leave some people less visible to official systems. The next steps are the OCME’s continued testing and public follow-up, and community responses that may finally provide the name this man did not have on him when he was found.