By David Chang • Published August 27, 2024 • Updated on August 27, 2024 at 3:10 pm

The Berks County Coroner's Office identified a man who was found frozen in a cave below the Pinnacle on the Appalachian Trail in 1977 as Nicolas Paul Grubb, 27, of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.

After nearly 50 years, officials revealed the identity of a man who was found frozen inside a cave along the Appalachian Trail in Albany Township, Pennsylvania.

“For 47 years, this man remained unidentified. A nameless figure in a long-forgotten case," Berks County Coroner John Fielding III said during a press conference on Tuesday, Aug. 27. "But today I’m honored to announce that through the unyielding determination of federal, state and local agencies, the Berks County Coroner’s Office has confirmed the identity of this individual. His name is Nicolas Paul Grubb, a 27-year-old man from Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.”

The discovery of the “Pinnacle Man”
On Jan. 16, 1977, around 3 p.m., two hikers found the frozen body of an unidentified man in a cave just below the Pinnacle along the Appalachian Trail in Albany Township, Pennsylvania. The discovery was made during one of the coldest months in Pennsylvania’s history, with an average high of only 8 degrees and a low temperature of 4 below zero, officials said. Snow totals during that winter reached 49 inches.

The man was described as a white male between the ages of 25 and 35 with blue eyes and reddish curly long hair who stood between 5-foot-10 and 5-foot-11 and weighed 155 pounds.

At the time of his death, he had a full beard and a “T” shaped scar on the left side of his chin. He was wearing a size 38 dark brown suede/buckskin jacket with tassels on the sleeves and torso, faded Wrangler blue jeans, a brown leather belt, a brown knit turtleneck sweater, a long winter undershirt and pants, two pairs of socks, ankle length brown leather hiking boots, leather gloves and sunglasses.

He was also wearing a 14-karat white gold ring inset with a blue stone and in his pockets he had a comb, pen, pencil, matches and $1.78.

Officials said there were no obvious signs of foul play. An autopsy was conducted on Jan. 17, 1977, at Reading Hospital. While the autopsy did not specify the time of death, the cause of death was listed as an overdose of Phenobarbital and Pentobarbital and the manner of death was listed as a suicide.

Since no one claimed the man, he was buried in the Berks County Potter’s Field. The case then went cold for decades.

Timeline of the investigation
In August 2009, the man, nicknamed “Pinnacle Man,” was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUS) database. A decade later, in April 2019, the database showed two potential matches of men who disappeared from Florida and Illinois. However, they were later determined to not be a match.

While the man’s fingerprints were taken, the original copy of the prints were missing and the quality of the copies was too poor to be used for identification, officials said.

On Aug. 5, 2019, the man’s body was exhumed from Potter’s Field and taken to Reading Hospital, where he was examined by a forensic anthropologist, forensic pathologist and a forensic odontologist. A full forensic dental exam was performed and the man’s NamUS record was updated. Samples were then shipped to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification.

More than two years later, in May 2021, the center contacted the Berks County Coroner’s Office and told them that the samples didn’t produce any results. While the coroner’s office offered to send more samples, the center said they couldn’t do further testing due to a backlog of cases.

In July 2021, the coroner’s office received the samples that had been shipped to Texas and placed them back with the rest of the man’s remains. The man’s body was then stored in the office’s evidence room.

In October 2021, the coroner’s office learned NamUS had moved to a new facility and were preparing to process samples but wouldn’t accept any samples prior to Jan. 2022.

In Nov. 2022, the man’s samples were mailed to the forensic DNA testing service Bode Technology but a match was still not found.

Investigators then tried to perform a facial approximation which failed due to the facial bones being broken or missing during the exhumation process. The Coroner's Office then considered reinterring the remains.

A major breakthrough then occurred in August, 2024. A Pennsylvania State Police cold case detective for Troop L, Reading Barracks, located the man's original fingerprint cards and submitted them to NamUS. On Aug. 12, an FBI fingerprint expert was able to determine a match in less than an hour, identifying the man as 27-year-old Nicolas Paul Grubb of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.

Investigators then contacted Grubb's family member who confirmed his identity and provided documents.

What we know about Nicolas Paul Grubb
Grubb, known by his family members as "Nicky," served in Company C, 1/111th Infantry of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in 1971 before receiving an honorable discharge.

Berks County Coroner Chief Deputy George Holmes said officials are still working to learn more about Grubb. They plan to amend his death certificate. Grubb's relatives want his remains to be with the family plot. The Coroner's Office is currently working to bring him home.

​https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/cold-case-pinnacle-man-frozen-cave-appalachian-trail-albany-township-pennsylvania-berks-county/3953239/

by: Arezow Doost
Posted: Feb 25, 2021 / 12:01 AM CST / Updated: Feb 25, 2021 / 10:28 PM CST

​Investigative Summary:
Texas is one step closer to requiring the use of a national database which uses fingerprints, DNA and dental records to solve missing and unidentified persons cases. Ten states have passed laws mandating police and medical examiners to enter case details to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System or NamUs – but not Texas, even though it’s based in Fort Worth. Now two Texas families and a newly elected lawmaker are determined to help others looking for loved ones.

​HOUSTON (KXAN) — Standing on the side of a packed street in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, David Fritts held his son’s picture and talked to anyone who would listen. 

The photo was a more recent one of Joseph smiling. Fritts would show it to shop owners along the border and people crossing from Texas.

He would tell them that he was 5’10”, with brown hair and brown eyes and was last in the Laredo area. 

“It’s really hard to describe the feeling of looking for your son with a picture and showing it to people … at one moment you’re determined and the other you feel so vulnerable,” the father described. “A lot of people were so kind … really caring people saying, ‘Oh I’m so sad,’ and they would look at the picture and say, ‘Oh, that’s your son, isn’t it?'” 

He would make the trip countless times, even going to Costa Rica because Joseph loved to surf. 

“Weeks turned into months,” Fritts said. “As time passed, especially after his brother Jordan’s birthday … we were all realizing how dire it was.”

A Marine’s struggle 
Joseph was Fritts’ middle child. 

“He was so full of life and had so many great friends and always lit up the room. He was just such a character,” he said, smiling.

Fritts recalled how he excelled in college and then how proud he was when he joined the Marines. 

“Joseph was the rough, tough little buffed-up guy, you know. Even in the Marines, he was number one in that whole class, as far as physical activity, you know. But it’s still tough, you know. It’s still mentally and physically tough, and Joseph didn’t always smile in pictures, but that one he was definitely smiling after boot camp. He was so happy to have graduated,” Fritts said, pointing to a picture of Joseph in uniform.

Continue reading this story at the link below:
​https://www.kxan.com/investigations/finding-missing-texans-the-push-to-expand-use-of-a-key-online-tool/

If your state is not requiring the use of NamUs contact your local representative and ask them to start legislation to require it. 

Eastlake mystery man identified as WWII veteran who disappeared in 1965

POSTED 9:42 AM, JUNE 21, 2018, BY DARCIE LORENO, UPDATED AT 03:12PM, JUNE 21, 2018

EASTLAKE, Ohio -- A man whose 2002 suicide led to extensive speculation about his true identity has been identified as Robert Ivan Nichols, a World War II veteran who  disappeared in 1965.

But now that authorities know who the man is, they're asking for the public's help to learn why he went off the map.

"Someone out there may hold the key as to why," U.S. Marshal Peter Elliot said during a press conference Thursday. "We need the public's help as to why."

Joseph Newton Chandler III, a man in his 60s, killed himself in his Eastlake apartment on July 30, 2002. Soon after his death, authorities realized he was living under a stolen identity.​

To read the rest of this article go to:

​APRIL 24, 2018, BY PEGGY GALLEK
​http://fox8.com/2018/04/24/body-of-man-found-in-lake-erie-38-years-ago-identified/

​CLEVELAND – The Fox 8 I-Team has an exclusive look at a break in the case of a local mystery.

A family of a missing man finally getting answers to questions that have lingered for decades.

“When we first got the call, we thought someone was playing a prank on us,” said Jeanie Cooper. “We just couldn’t believe it, that they finally found him.”

But it wasn’t a prank. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s office had finally been able to identify a man that was found in Lake Erie in 1980.

“The fellow who was found floating in Lake Erie had no identification on him,” Dr. Thomas Gilson told the Fox 8 I-Team Tuesday morning. He said the man’s fingerprints were taken at the time, and after officials at the time were not able to identify them, those prints were stored.

Through the years attempts were made to identify the man and employees kept working the case. Last summer, Anjie Fischer tried again.

“I don’t give up because all these unidentified people are somebody’s, somebody,” Fischer said.

Fischer said she teamed up with Cleveland Police on a project , and they sent the fingerprint cards to the National Missing And Unidentified Persons System. She said new technology helped make the identification.

“We got a hit pretty quickly,” Fischer said. After more than three decades, officials finally were able to put a name with the unidentified man, Dale Edwin Cooper.

Fischer was then able track down his family members, who live in Fairview Park.

“We have been searching for him for years,” said Cooper’s younger brother, Keith. “He was in the Air Force. He returned home and was living in Cleveland when he went missing. “

Keith Cooper said he and his family are extremely thankful to the medical examiner’s office for their hard work and dedication.

“This is bitter sweet,” said Keith Cooper. “It is good to finally know. This brings us closure and peace.”

​Jeremy Baker, KENS 11:37 PM. CDT October 22, 2017

​Janet Griffey says her sister, Wendy Martinez, was the life of the party. "Singing was her passion. She loved to sing."

On the night of December 3, 2009 that party came to an end. It was the last time they ever saw Martinez.
They were celebrating her birthday at a dance club on the city's Northeast side. "We called it a night,” Griffey says. “She didn't. She stayed behind which was nothing out of the ordinary."
Martinez, who lived with Griffey at the time, never came home. "Years passed and years passed. We had nothing. No clue, nothing. She just disappeared." Griffey would also get monthly calls from detectives; calls that were not easy to take. "They were either going to tell you that we found your sister, or we haven't found her," said Griffey.
​
Last Thursday, detectives told her that Martinez’s DNA matched remains found on Brooks City Base. It wasn't the outcome the family was hoping for, but Griffey tries to remain positive. "Now there is closure, and that was the hardest part--not knowing what happened to her."  Read more at the link below.

​http://www.kens5.com/news/local/after-eight-years-closure-for-family-of-missing-woman/485236758

Terry Peder Rasmussen had a US Navy background. He seemed to work mainly as an electrician after serving.
He was a serial killer who still has known victims that are unidentified, including 3 children.
​
Authorities believe that Rasmussen was in New Hampshire, Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon and Virginia during the mid- and late 1970s, and they are seeking the public’s help to clarify his whereabouts during that time.
​
http://www.wmur.com/…/investigators-release-detail…/13140878

DNA Assistance:
As part of the NamUs system, the Center for Human Identification at the UNT Health Science Center coordinates with criminal justice agencies, the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to identify, collect and perform DNA analyses on unidentified remains and family reference samples free of charge. For DNA submission paperwork and instructions, visit the DNA Submission Page.

http://www.untfsu.com/namus.html​

Effort underway to identify Marine buried in unmarked grave​By USMC Life | March 3rd, 2017
http://usmclife.com/2017/03/effort-underway-identify-marine-buried-unmarked-grave/

​Help Find Military Veteran Harlem John Doe (warning)
Posted on 11/12/2016 by Harlem World Magazine

http://harlemworldmag.com/help-find-military-veteran-harlem-john-doe-warning/​

Woman Works To Identify Marine Who Died In Harlem Nearly 20 Years Ago
​November 11, 2016 7:18 PM
Filed Under: Magdalena Doris, U.S. Marine Corps, Veterans Day

​​http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/11/11/unidentified-marine/