Anonymous note leads police to severely beaten teen left to die in abandoned building about to be demolished
James Clinton, 18, was rescued after typewritten note was left with police
Officers found him in basement of a building just two days from demolition
He suffered such severe injuries to his face officers were unsure of his ID
Drugs case citation against him listed him as homeless and living in a shelter
But his Facebook page says he worked as an overnight stocker at Walmart
By Damien Gayle
Published: 04:30 EDT, 20 September 2013 | Updated: 06:59 EDT, 20 September 2013
Left to die: James Clinton, 18, was discovered unconscious and badly beaten in a condemned home in Anchorage thanks to an anonymous note
A badly beaten teenager left to die in the basement of a condemned building was rescued after an anonymous tipster left a typewritten note with police.
Officers in Anchorage, Alaska, found 18-year-old James Clinton unconscious and in a critical condition in a home that was just two days away from demolition.
Despite finding an identity card in the youth's pocket, officers were at first unsure of his name because he had suffered such severe injuries to his face.
Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Anita Shell said: 'It's my understanding he was beaten around the head and the face, the whole body.'
After he was found on Monday night, Mr Clinton was rushed to an Anchorage hospital where he was yesterday reported as still unconscious and in a critical condition.
His medical condition is so bad he has as yet been unable to speak to police, said Ms Shell.
Police have appealed to the note writer to come forward to help them learn why, and by whom, Mr Clinton was beaten.
Two University Police Department officers were on duty at their desks in a squad room at about 8.30pm on Monday when the note appeared, said University Police Chief Rick Shell.
'One of them got up to do something and noticed a note on the floor. He picked it up, read it, let the other officer read it,' said Chief Shell.
'The other officer saw content that led him to believe that the Anchorage Police Department should be involved.'
The note indicated that a teenager had been beaten and left to die inside an abandoned building. It said the writer felt compelled to tell someone.
The campus is more than two miles from the abandoned home in downtown Anchorage.
Anchorage police found Mr Clinton in the basement. Police initially said he was being held against his will, but Ms Shell said his injuries prevented him from leaving.
The home was owned by Covenant House, which operates a shelter across the street for homeless teenagers.
Mr Clinton was homeless and living in the shelter late last year, according to a citation in a misdemeanour marijuana case against him seen by Anchorage Daily News. That case was eventually dismissed.
'How they were able to enter there is perplexing to me': Alison Kear, director of Covenant House, a homeless shelter which owned the building where Mr Clinton was found, said it was set to be demolished this week
Alison Kear, director of Covenant House, said the home where Mr Clinton was found was set to be demolished this week to expand a parking lot.
Wrought iron mesh had covered the windows and doors were locked, she said. A security company had patrolled outside. The only access she could guess was a second-floor window not much bigger than a dog door.
'How they were able to enter there is perplexing to me,' she said.
A picture of Mr Clinton taken from his open Facebook profile: On the page the teenager lists his home town as Inglewood, near Los Angeles, California
Police spokesman Ms Shell did not know if Mr Clinton's attackers had used a weapon and she could not say whether the crime scene was the abandoned home where he was found or elsewhere.
'We gathered evidence from that scene,' Shell said. 'I don't have specifics on whether that's where the assault took place.'
Investigators allowed the scheduled demolition of the building where police found Mr Clinton to move forward as planned and a wrecking crew used heavy machinery to knock it down yesterday morning.
Ms Shell added that police have released Mr Clinton's name and identity in the hope that potential witnesses might come forward. It is thought he may go by a nickname but detectives do not know what it is, she said.
Mr Clinton's Facebook profile raises as many questions as it answers. On it he says he worked as an overnight stocker at Walmart and went to Bartlett High School, near Centennial Park on the north-east edge of Anchorage.
However, he lists his home town as Inglewood, California, a rough district that is part of the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area.
On the profile page Mr Clinton, who turned 18 in January, also claims to have studied at the University of Alaska Anchorage, but university police said he is not currently enrolled there.
An Anchorage schools district spokeswoman told Anchorage Daily News that Mr Clinton last attended public school there in 2011. A Walmart store manager in the city told the paper he couldn't immediately provide information.
The profile itself was only set up on June 17 this year, with Mr Clinton commenting soon after: 'New leash (sic), no time for fake people.' He had just 15 'friends' linked on the social network.
University Police Chief Shell praised the quick response by both departments that most likely saved Mr Clinton's life.
'This was just an absolutely outstanding case of two officers taking something that could have been fairly innocuous and taking it seriously,' said Chief Shell.
'It ended up saving the young man's life.'
Anonymous note leads police to severely beaten teen left to die in abandoned building days about to be demolished