OVER THE past four months, family and friends posted thousands of fliers throughout the city, trying to locate Billy Borschell, a 40-year-old Juniata Park man who disappeared in mid-August.
For most of that time, his corpse was lying unidentified inside a body bag at the city morgue.

In spite of repeated calls since August by family members to police and the city Medical Examiner's Office, the body was not identified until last week, after the Daily News published descriptions of 12 corpses that the medical examiner had been unable to identify.

One of the unidentified bodies had been discovered on Sept. 12 in a grassy industrial area near G and Venango streets - a month after Borschell's disappearance and just six blocks from the Bennington Street rowhouse where Borschell was living with his mother.

The unidentified corpse was badly decomposed, shriveled to just 71 pounds, with no visible fingerprints or tattoos. Even its sex was uncertain. But the Medical Examiner's Office determined it was a male, about 40 years old. He was short, about 5 feet 2, and wore moccasins.

One of Borschell's friends, Tom DiLeonardo, read the newspaper story and called the M.E.'s office, insisting that the corpse found in September had to be his friend.

Borschell's decomposed body was finally identified when authorities pulled him out of cold storage, put a light into his chest cavity and made out the names of his children - Krystal, Brittany and Billy - tattooed on his chest.

William J. Borschell, who had battled heroin and other drugs for years, apparently died of "adverse effects of drugs," the Medical Examiner's Office said.

It is the second time in a month that officials at the morgue discovered they had been holding an unidentified corpse while distraught relatives were looking desperately for a missing family member.

The earlier case was that of Unisha "Niecey" Jefferson, a 38-year-old North Philadelphia woman who had disappeared in April 2003, and had been last reported seen near 22nd and Lehigh.

Her body was discovered in September 2003, in an abandoned factory building about four blocks away.

But the corpse wasn't identified for more than two years. After her family attended a missing-persons conference organized by City Councilman Juan Ramos, her case was mentioned in the newspaper and the medical examiner's chief investigator, David Quain, took notice.

Borschell's family blames both the Police Department and the Medical Examiner's Office for the delay - nearly three months - in identifying his body.

"The afternoon of August 13, he walked out and never came back," his mother said. "When he didn't come home the next day, I knew something was wrong. "

Mrs. Borschell said she waited until Aug. 16 to call the 24th Police District. They sent two officers to the Borschells' home to take information on the missing man, "but they said because of his age, they couldn't make it a priority," she said.

Borschell's brothers, John and David, printed fliers with a photo of their brother. "MISSING Since August 13, 2005," the fliers said. "Billy Borschell. PLEASE CALL if you have SEEN him!!! Family Very Concerned. "

Friends helped them distribute the fliers throughout the city, from West Philadelphia, where Billy had been getting drug treatment, to South Street and Mayfair.

"We put posters all over the city, one end to the other," David Borschell said.

One of the posters went up inside the 24th Police District, headquartered at Whitaker Avenue and Luzerne Street, the family said.

But last week, when the Medical Examiner's Office was alerted to the possibility that their unidentified corpse might be Borschell, authorities checked the Police Department's official list of missing persons. Borschell's name wasn't even listed.

Police Capt. John Darby, whose special-victims unit includes missing persons, said in an interview last week that when individuals are first reported missing to police, the cases are initially handled by detectives in one of the city's five detective divisions.

Only after 30 days, he said, are cases turned over to his missing-persons unit and, even then, a case may be retained for further investigation by the detective who had the case first.

Darby said he had no specific information on the handling of Borschell's disappearance.

Quain said the Medical Examiner's Office had records of just two inquiries regarding Borschell - the first back in August, before the body had been discovered, and the second last week, when DiLeonardo called with the tip that led to Borschell's identification.

The Borschell family says they made several additional calls to the Medical Examiner's oOffice - including an inquiry in mid-September, after hearing that a body had been found at G and Venango.

"They told us that nothing had come in, but they would put us on a 'yellow alert' to be called if [an unidentified body] came in," Mrs. Borschell said.

Quain said he was unaware of any office procedures called "yellow alert. "

Councilman Ramos said he intends to look at the Borschell case when Council studies the city's attempts to match unidentified bodies with missing-person cases.

"Right now it doesn't seem like the system is working good enough," Ramos said. "Maybe there's a lack of resources, maybe a lack of coordination. This is what we're going to look at. "

Council voted Dec. 1 to authorize a hearing on the issue. Ramos said nothing has been scheduled, but he hopes to do something before the year ends.

Memorial services for Borschell are scheduled for Wednesday, 10 a.m. to noon, at Garzone Funeral Home, L Street and Hunting Park Avenue.