30 Years Later, Body Found Floating Near FL Bridge Identified As VA Man

CLEARWATER, FL — A body found under a Pinellas County bridge more than 30 years ago has been identified as a Virginia man, authorities said.

For decades, he was known as “Pinellas County John Doe 1993” and he now has a name: Edman Eric Gleed, Clearwater police wrote in a Facebook post.

He was 84 years old at the time of his death and reported as missing by his son in Fairfax County.

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The body of a then unidentified man was found floating near the Clearwater Pass bridge on Nov. 29, 1993, near the east side of the bridge leading to Sand Key, Clearwater police said.

“A neatly folded pile of clothing” was found on Clearwater Beach on the lifeguard stand, investigators said. There was no identification among the clothing or on his body.

An autopsy didn’t determine his cause of death, though foul play wasn’t suspected, the Pinellas County Medical Examiner’s Office said.

More than three decades later, additional samples of Gleed’s DNA were submitted for testing and investigators looked at genetic genealogy.

“Almost immediately, we observed that all of the DNA matches were either living in or recent immigrants from England, which was quite unexpected for a person found in Pinellas County, Florida,” Kaycee Connelly, the lead for Moxxy Forensic Investigations, which worked on the case, said. “Our team of volunteer genealogists uncovered numerous ancestors from various parts of England, stretching back to the mid-1700s, to connect the DNA matches with one another. Because of recent immigration and the estimated age range of the man at the time of his death, we were looking for very distant connections.”

Several months of analysis by nine genealogists determined various connections to Gleed, including a couple from the mid-18th century that was living in Bristol, England, police said.

Eventually, the team was able to develop a candidate for his identity. The next of kin, his son, was contacted and a buccal swab was collected to compare DNA and determine his father’s identity.

Gleed’s son, who is now 94, lives in North Carolina.

“We are happy that we are able to provide the family some answers and some closure as to what happened with their loved one,” Michael Walek, deputy chief of Clearwater police, said. “And we’re grateful to the medical examiner’s office and Moxxy Forensic Investigations for helping us get those answers.”

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