Human Leg Bones Found In Creek Are Identified By Bergen County Student Team

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — After foot and leg bones —with a shoe still on — were found in a Missouri creek, investigators decided to try to get help from a genealogy program at Ramapo College, based in Mahwah.

Recently, the student team gave a name to "St. Louis John Doe," allowing his family to have some closure.

Ramapo College's Investigative Genetic Genealogy program has helped solve six cold cases since it started its work in 2022, but this one was referred to as a "hot case" because investigators had leads to go on.

The college said in a release on Monday that back in October 2021, the bones and the shoe were found in Coldwater Creek in Florissant, St. Louis County, Missouri.

News reports at the time said experts believed the bones had been there for six to eight weeks, and belonged to a six-foot male. They did not find more bones in the area.

In February 2024, Dr. Lindsay Trammell, forensic anthropologist with the St. Louis County Medical Examiner’s Office, contacted the Ramapo College IGG Center with a request to work on this case.

Trammell was encouraged to contact the center by a colleague in another local medical examiner’s office who found success partnering with the IGG.

Extract from DNA testing was sent to Genologue in Tucker, Ga., to create a DNA profile. Intermountain Forensics in Salt Lake City, Utah performed more work. In May 2024, a profile was generated and uploaded to GEDmatch Pro.

Students in the Ramapo College IGG Certificate Program began their investigative genetic genealogy.

Within days, they identified a potential candidate for the identity of the JohnDoe. In late May, they gave the information to Dr. Trammell and detectives from the St. Louis County Police Department Bureau of Crimes Against Persons.

Investigators contacted a relative of the deceased man, who confirmed that the person was missing and hadn't been heard from since 2021.

The family provided a DNA sample for a potential match.

On July 16, 2024, the identification was confirmed.

At the family’s request, the identity of the man will not be shared publicly.

"Because St. Louis John Doe went missing only three years ago, the confirmation of his death for the family is hard to process when holding onto hope of his return," said a release from Ramapo. "The IGG Center respects the family’s wishes to keep the identity private."

Read about other cases that the IGG Center helped crack:

• Man Missing 43 Years Is Identified Thanks To Bergen County Students
• Jawbone In Boy's Rock Collection Is Linked To Dead Marine Thanks To Bergen County Students