CANAAN, NEW HAMPSHIRE: The skeletal remains of a man discovered in a wooded area in 1996 is said to belong to a New Hampshire man who was reported missing, authorities said, People reports.
On Thursday, September 28, the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office announced that a joint effort between the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has led them to the identification of William Benjamin Adams.
The man was apparently suffering from dementia
According to the authorities, Adams, who was 78 at the time of his death, reportedly left his home in Canaan, New Hampshire, in June 1991, to go for a stroll but never returned.
Adams had been suffering from dementia, his family said and several efforts were made to find him but all of them turned out to be unsuccessful.
Who discovered the man's skeletal remains?
According to the attorney general’s office, a hunter found the man's skeletal remains in a wooded part of Hanover in November 1996.
An additional search of the area led the cops to discover more remains. Authorities suspected at that time that they belonged to Adams because of the vicinity of the victim’s last known location.
The remains were sent for a forensic test
In 1997, the remains were then sent to an out-of-state forensic anthropologist, the attorney general’s office said.
The “examination indicated that the biological characteristics were not inconsistent with those of Benjamin Adams" but that "a positive identification could not be made” at the time.
But, the case was later re-examined with the involvement of OCME, the University of New Hampshire FAIR Lab and the State Police Major Crime and Cold Case Units with the hope that the mystery surrounding Adams’ disappearance could be solved through modern DNA technology.
A DNA sample of William Benjamin Adams' son was taken by authorities
Authorities’ investigation included obtaining a DNA sample from the son of Adams. The sample and some of the skeletal remains that were found in 1996 were sent to a private lab for DNA comparison testing.
“The lab, Bode Technology, confirmed the probability of relatedness is 'at least 99.999998%' and the DNA evidence is 'at least 42 million times' more likely to be from “a biological parent as compared to untested and unrelated individuals,” the attorney general’s office said.
The OCME is in the process of reunifying the remains with Adams’ family, as per the authorities.
