Body that washed up on Revere Beach in 2014 ID’d as missing man
Partial human remains that had washed up on Revere Beach more than two years ago have finally been identified as a missing man last seen in Cambridge, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement.
Using DNA matching and a national database of missing persons, the partial remains were linked to a man with ties to Oklahoma who had most recently lived in Cambridge, Conley said. The man had written a letter to his family before his 2013 disappearance saying he was “going off the grid” and that they “would not see [him] again,” Conley’s office said.
“Receiving news of a family member’s death is always a painful task,” Conley said. “But with their years of waiting and wondering at an end, I hope this man’s loved ones can take some comfort knowing that their son and brother is at peace.”
The circumstances of the 31-year-old man’s death are not considered suspicious, and so officials did not release his name.
The mystery began in April 2014, when a passerby on Revere Beach spotted what police called “badly decomposed” remains. Because of the condition of the remains, investigators could not initially identify the man or determine his ethnicity.
State Police released photos of the top of his American Eagle jeans with 30-inch waist, a braided leather belt, and boxer shorts that had an image of a Volkswagon Beetle. A tipster who saw those photos contacted State Police with the name of a person who had gone missing in October 2013.
With help from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs, investigators obtained a DNA sample from the subject’s father in Utah. That proved a familial match to the remains.
“I’m grateful to the State troopers, the NamUs personnel, and especially the Good Samaritan tipster involved in this investigation who helped bring answers to this young man’s family,” Conley said.
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