The Ontario Provincial Police say the id of an American man’s physique discovered virtually 22 years in the past close to the Ontario-U.S border has been solved utilizing investigative genetic family tree, giving his household closure.
On Could 29, 2003, a person’s physique was found from the Livingston Channel Detroit River, simply west of Amherstburg, Ont — a small city south of Windsor.
For greater than 20 years, police had been unable to ID the physique. The OPP’s Essex county detachment started an investigation and a number of other makes an attempt had been made to determine the stays with no optimistic outcomes.
The person was sporting darkish colored pants, a darkish shirt and a winter coat in addition to mountain footwear.
In early 2023, DNA was submitted for investigative genetic family tree to determine the person. A number of months later, police mentioned by way of family tree assist by Toronto Police, a “presumptive” ID was decided.
“In September 2024, a member of the family’s DNA was used to verify that the male was 48-year-old, James Raymond Stewart of Detroit, Michigan who went lacking in November 2002,” police mentioned.
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The next month, Stewart’s members of the family traveled to Amherstburg, Ont. to go to Stewart’s headstone.
The household mentioned Stewart was born Could 31, 1954. His sister mentioned in a video posted to YouTube by OPP that Stewart was a “delicate” and “quiet” man. He labored a pair years within the navy within the 70s after which labored in Detroit space eating places.
The household lived in Arizona and his sister mentioned Thanksgiving was at all times bittersweet as that was across the time Stewart went lacking.
“It’s closure for us as a result of we had no thought,” his sister mentioned. “Each of our dad and mom died and had no thought.”
“So we’re simply celebrating the truth that now we’ve got closure … He wont be a John Doe anymore.”
The reason for dying was undetermined, in line with the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service. Nevertheless, police mentioned “foul play was not suspected in his dying.”
“After 20 years, we had been lastly in a position to present this household with solutions about James, due to investigative genetic family tree,” mentioned Det. Insp. Randy Gaynor with the OPP.
“This investigative software has confirmed to be invaluable, enabling regulation enforcement to resolve even decades-old circumstances and providing hope to others going through related circumstances,” Gaynor continued. “Its means to attach distant relations by way of DNA has remodeled the panorama of historic murder and unidentified human stays investigations.”
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