Man found dead in 2021 identified
Volunteers resolve Austin cold case
Austin, Texas – A man found dead in Austin in 2021 has been identified by volunteers from the DNA Doe Project. Working with the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office, the DNA Doe Project used investigative genetic genealogy to resolve this case, utilizing a DNA profile developed from the remains and uploaded to a public database to build a family tree for the unidentified person. The name of the formerly unidentified man is being withheld.
On March 10, 202, an African American man was found dead in the city of Austin, Texas. He was thought to be between 50 and 70 years old and was around 5’10” tall, but little else was known about him. With no clues as to his identity, his case was brought to the DNA Doe Project, whose expert volunteers work pro bono to identify John and Jane Does and restore their names.
A team of volunteer genealogists began working on this case in September 2022 and found a common ancestor that connected two distant DNA matches of the unidentified man. Soon afterwards, and less than a month after research on the case commenced, a member of the team came across a descendant of that ancestor who was born in Texas and who fit the description of the John Doe.
“Our team quickly identified a woman born in North Carolina in the 1850s as a likely ancestor of this man,” said team co-leader Matthew Waterfield. “Just a few weeks later, we found that a great great grandson of hers had moved to Austin, and he turned out to be Travis County John Doe.”
With multiple pieces of evidence pointing to this man as a likely candidate, his name was provided to the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office, who confirmed his identity in November 2022.
This identification would not have been possible without distant cousins of the unidentified man having uploaded their DNA profiles to GEDmatch. Gwen Knapp, team co-leader on the case, said “Having numerous relatives in the databases makes it easier for us to return Jane and John Does to their families. My hope is that people who have taken DNA tests will upload to databases such as GEDmatch and DNA Justice, so that we can restore the names of more of the thousands of unidentified people out there.”
The DNA Doe Project is grateful to the groups and individuals who helped solve this case: the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office, who entrusted the case to the DNA Doe Project; Genologue for extraction of DNA and whole-genome sequencing; Kevin Lord for bioinformatics; GEDmatch Pro for providing their database; our generous donors who joined our mission and contributed to this case; and DDP’s dedicated teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who work tirelessly to bring all our Jane and John Does home.
Doe-Nate Fund Goal: $2,525
This case was fully funded by our generous donors.
Description:
On March 10, 2021, an adult African American man was pronounced dead in the city of Austin, Texas (circumstances unknown). He was approximately 5’10” tall and 130 pounds. He had gray hair and brown eyes.
NamUs ID: UP80316
Date Body Found: 3/10/21
Race: Black/African American
Sex: Male
Estimated Age: 18+
Estimated PMI: Unknown
Agency of Jurisdiction:
Travis County Medical Examiners Office
Sandra Call
(512) 854-9599
[email protected]
More Information:
https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/80346?nav
Status: Identified
Last Updated: November 27, 2024
