Remains Found in 2011 Finally Identified as Missing Berwyn Man

Racine, WI - After nearly five years, an autopsy, forensic dentistry, countless tests and interviews, Antonio Guerrero will finally be laid to rest.

Guerrero, 31, was reported missing from his home in Berwyn in September 2011, about two months before skeletal remains were collected from shoreline rocks in Racine, Wisconsin, just east of a Lake Michigan boat launch, according to Racine police.

The first set of bones were found Nov. 12, 2011. Three weeks later, a forearm and a hand were recovered one mile south.

The Waukesha County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy and a dental exam on the remains. An independent anthropologist also studied them for nine months and found the person was a man in his early 20s to mid 30s, though his ethnicity couldn't be determined, police reported.

The case was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database.

While medical professionals continued their study of the remains, Racine police pored over missing persons reports filed in southeast Wisconsin. They compiled a list of unsolved cases the might match the unidentified man found on the lakefront.

Guerrero's case seemed a potential match, and his family told police he may have been in Racine when he stopped communicating with them. But a comparison of Guerrero's dental records and the exam of the remains proved inconclusive, police reported.

For the next 15 months, investigators continued studying missing persons reports.

In 2015, Waukesha County medical examiner Lynda Biedrzycki hired forensic anthropologist Cristina Figueroa Soto as deputy medical examiner. With permission from the Racine County medical examiner, Figueroa Soto examined the skeletal remains.

Through forensic testing by the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification Laboratory, a DNA sequence commonly found in Hispanic people was discovered in the remains.

Figueroa Soto then recommended testing of DNA specimens from Guerrero’s family.

Swabs from Guerrero’s mother and siblings were sent in the fall of 2015 to the university laboratory, where they were compared with DNA from the remains.

University officials confirmed the unidentified remains biologically matched the child and sibling of the Guerrero family, police reported.

Racine police and the medical examiner recently met with the Guerrero family to share the news, and the family has made funeral arrangements for their loved one.

But the manner of Guerrero's death remains a mystery.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact the Racine Police Department Investigations Unit at 262-635-7756. Anonymous tips may be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 262-636-9330 or text 274637 (CRIMES). Text messages should begin with RACS.

The Racine County Medical Examiner’s Office acknowledges the staff at the Waukesha County Medical Examiner’s Office for help and guidance in identifying Antonio Guerrero.

Photo courtesy of the Racine Police Department.