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mahatmakanejeeves

(57,482 posts)
Thu Jul 7, 2016, 09:51 AM Jul 2016

Remains of missing Florida man identified 41 years later

Source: Associated Press, via the Washington Post

By Associated Press

July 7 at 9:12 AM

LAKELAND, Fla. — Some 41 years after 19-year-old Mark Duane Woodard disappeared, Florida authorities have finally identified his remains.

Diann Wells tells the Ledger (http://bit.ly/29PzfsP) that Polk County Sheriff’s deputies told her last week that remains found in the north Florida woods in 1977 were recently matched to her brother.

Woodard went missing on April 14, 1975. His body was spotted by two people in a heavily wooded area about 70 miles north of Lakeland in March 1977. ... Thirty-two years later, the medical examiner’s office sent a bone to the University of North Texas to have DNA samples extracted.

Polk County Sheriff’s deputies came across Woodard’s name while reviewing missing persons cases in 2015. They sent DNA that had been provided by his parents and the match was made June 23.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/remains-of-missing-florida-man-identified-41-years-later/2016/07/07/71393014-4444-11e6-a76d-3550dba926ac_story.html



Autoplay video at Ledger site.

LBN, because these stories show that decades after someone goes missing, there are still people on the case.
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Remains of missing Florida man identified 41 years later (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Jul 2016 OP
Or it shows we need a nationwide system that matches DNA with missing people!!! Silver_Witch Jul 2016 #1
We do, thats how that match was made.... Historic NY Jul 2016 #3
He went missing 15 years before DNA testing was available JustABozoOnThisBus Jul 2016 #2
But Florida Man seems so active in the news lately? AtheistCrusader Jul 2016 #4
 

Silver_Witch

(1,820 posts)
1. Or it shows we need a nationwide system that matches DNA with missing people!!!
Thu Jul 7, 2016, 09:54 AM
Jul 2016

Such a long wait would be horrifying to me.

Historic NY

(37,449 posts)
3. We do, thats how that match was made....
Thu Jul 7, 2016, 10:30 AM
Jul 2016

Missing persons that are reported are entered in the FBI computers systems. They are updated regularly by the entering agencies as new info becomes available. None of this was in use when he went missing. Now remains like his that were found are entered to locate matches as this one was decades old.

http://namus.gov/ & https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/vicap

JustABozoOnThisBus

(23,350 posts)
2. He went missing 15 years before DNA testing was available
Thu Jul 7, 2016, 10:20 AM
Jul 2016

And I'm not sure a national databank of DNA and fingerprints is warranted. I wouldn't want that data collected from newborns and held in a sort-of-secure federal computer system. Maybe if the system were voluntary.

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