A skull was found on a Pennsylvania River bank in ID’d as a missing man

MORRISVILLE, Pennsylvania (AP) — Authorities say a skull found on the banks of the Delaware River in Pennsylvania more than 3 1/2 decades ago has been identified as that of a man long believed to have been murdered in New Jersey with his girlfriend, whose body was found in River on the New Jersey side the previous year.

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said Monday that investigators and a private forensic DNA lab have identified the skull found on the banks of the river in Morrisville in 1986 as that of Richard Thomas Alt, 31, who was last seen by his parents on Christmas Eve 1984 and His disappearance was reported to the Trenton police in early 1985.

At the time of his disappearance, Alt and his girlfriend were suspected murder victims in New Jersey, and her body was found in April 1985 in the river in Trenton in Mercer County, county attorney Matt Weintraub said.

“I can’t even imagine wondering and worrying about a family member missing a day, let alone 37 years. That wait is now over for Mr. Alt’s family,” Weintraub said in a statement. “I’m glad we can give them some peace of mind through this identification, His remains will eventually be returned to his family.”

Weintraub was grateful for the technical expertise provided free of charge by Texas-based Outram Inc.orensic genome sequencing and forensic genetic genealogy were used to identify the skull found in June 1986 on the banks of the river by a fisherman by a Morrisville Boat Ram.

The county coroner’s office entered the skull into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System’s database. In September of last year, investigators sent the skull to Outram after officials at the company in The Woodlands, Texas, said they had found a potential match in a public genealogy database.

One of the DNA contributors, a 49-year-oldlorida woman, told investigators on January 4 that she was 11 when her father, Alt, disappeared in Trenton. She agreed to share her DNA results from the genealogy website with Outram, who said four days later that the parent-child relationship match had been confirmed. prosecutors said.

Bucks County prosecutors said they consider their investigation closed “due to a lack of evidence that any crime was committed in Bucks County.” They said New Jersey plaintiffs consider their cases unresolved. A letter was sent Monday seeking comment and details on the Mercer County cases.