Centuries-old cold case finally solved after researchers identify mysterious remains on Jersey shore
A centuries-old cold case has finally been solved after researchers successfully identified mysterious remains which had washed up on a series of American beaches.
Undergraduate researchers at Ramapo College of New Jersey used advanced DNA technology to solve the case, and have found that skeletal remains found on three beaches belonged to a 19th-century ship's captain.
The bones, discovered separately on Ocean City, Margate and Longport beaches between 1995 and 2013, have been confirmed as belonging to Captain Henry Goodsell, who died at sea 181 years ago, aged 29.
New Jersey State Police turned the remains over to researchers at the college's Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center last year for analysis.
Police turned the remains over to researchers at the college's Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center last year
NEW JERSEY STATE POLICE
"We kind of kept going back and forth between, are they historic? Are they not historic?" NJSP Forensic Anthropologist Dr Anna Delaney told NBC New York.
"This is absolutely amazing because after all of this time, Henry has his name."
While examining New Jersey shipwreck records, students uncovered newspaper articles from December 20 and 24, 1844.
They learnt that the schooner Oriental, captained by Goodsell, was carrying five crew members and 60 tons of marble to Philadelphia to help build up the city's Girard College when it sank near Brigantine Shoal in 1844, killing everyone on board.
Captain Henry Goodsell died at sea 181 years ago, aged 29 - and students have finally confirmed that these are his remains
RAMAPO COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY
Researchers traced Goodsell's genetic relatives back to the 1600s and built family trees, revealing ancestral ties to nearby Connecticut.
They eventually located Goodsell's great-great-granddaughter in Maryland, whose DNA sample confirmed the remains were who the researchers thought they were.
The bones found included fragments from a leg, arm and cranium, which they determined all belonged to the same individual.
But Goodsell's family said they do not want his remains, so they will stay at a state repository indefinitely.
The schooner Oriental, captained by Goodsell, was carrying five crew members and 60 tons of marble to Philadelphia when it sank
RAMAPO COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY
Law enforcement officials have praised the identification work carried out by the student researchers.
"Identifying human remains is one of the most solemn and challenging responsibilities law enforcement is charged with," said Chief of County Detectives Patrick Snyder at the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.
"Law enforcement works hard knowing that behind every case is a promise: that no one will be forgotten, and that we will pursue the truth until families have the answers they deserve," he added.