COLUMBUS, Ind. – After over 25 years of investigating, the Columbus Police Department (CPD) has used forensic genetic genealogy to close the case of an unidentified man who died by suicide.
Working in conjunction with the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office and the Bartholomew County Prosecutor’s Office, investigators were met with decades of dead-end leads until they enlisted the assistance of Othram, a Texas-based corporation specializing in forensic genetic genealogy.
On January 30, 1999, CPD was called to Jonathan Moore Pike near Carr Hill Road. A man in his 50s or 60s was found dead of a single gunshot. Two handguns were found near him, but he had no identification. His death was determined to be a suicide.
Through the years, investigators tried running his fingerprints, asking for the public’s assistance, sending bulletins to regional law enforcement, and entering his descriptors into nationwide missing-person databases. Nothing led to the man’s identity.
In recent years, nationally forensic genetic genealogy has allowed investigators to identify potential family members of a person whose DNA they already have. CPD sent a sample of the man’s DNA to Othram. It led the company to north-central Ohio, where a nephew identified the man from the FBI’s photo and provided his DNA to confirm their familial relationship.
With this information, the man’s identity was confirmed to be Leo Michael Murray, an Ohio resident who was 61 years old when he died. Murray had never been married and had no children. He told his family he was moving to Florida before he disappeared, which is why his family never reported him missing to the police.
CPD Public Relations Officer Sgt. Skyler Berry credited the many investigators who contributed to the case and the partnerships between public agencies and Othram, in bringing a resolution to the case. There is more information about forensic genetic genealogy, cases solved using it, and fundraising opportunities on Othram’s website.
Anyone who is missing a loved one can report their disappearance to law enforcement for entry into a national database of missing people. The Columbus Police Department says there is no minimum amount of time a person must be missing before CPD enters a missing person into that database.
