DETROIT – A man whose remains were found in Detroit in 1998 has been identified.
The Detroit Police Department and FBI worked with Othram to identify the remains of Robert Booker, Jr., who was born in 1959.
According to DNA Solves, in May 1998 the partial remains of an unidentified man were found in a vacant apartment building near East Grand Boulevard and Ferry Street in Detroit. A construction crew was demolishing the building when they found a human skull.
The remains could not be identified, so details of the case were entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUS). A DNA profile was developed and uploaded to CODIS, but a match was not found.
The case went cold until in March 2022, the Detroit Police Department teamed up with Othram to see if advanced DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy could help identify the man.
Scientists with Othram developed a DNA extract from the evidence and used forensic-grade genome sequencing to build a DNA profile. That profile was sent to the FBI’s forensic genetic genealogy team to help investigators identify the man.
They located potential family members and identified the remains as Robert Booker, Jr. DNA Solves shared details of this case on Jan. 23, 2025.
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