More than three decades ago, a man went missing in Falls Church. Two days later, a body was found off the Floridian coast roughly 1,000 miles away.
Authorities didn’t uncover the connection between the two cases until now, with the help of a genealogical investigation that confirmed the body was that of Edman Eric Gleed, who had been reported missing in November 1993.
Moxxy Forensic Investigations, a Texas-based nonprofit that provides genealogy services to police and other investigating agencies, announced yesterday (Monday) that it has identified the man known as “Pinellas County John Doe 1993.”
“This case has been close to the hearts of everyone on the team,” said Ed Adams, a volunteer investigative genetic genealogist for Moxxy who served as team assistant for the case. “We are all honored to have played a part in returning Edman Gleed to his family.”
According to Moxxy, Gleed was last seen leaving the Falls Church home where he lived with his son on Nov. 27, 1993. His son filed a missing persons report with the Fairfax County Police Department shortly after he disappeared.
Down in Florida, a man’s body was spotted on Nov. 29, 1993 floating in the Gulf of Mexico near Clearwater, a coastal city west of Tampa. Investigating police later found “neatly folded clothing” near a lifeguard tower at Clearwater Beach that they believed could potentially belong to the man, who was declared dead at the scene.
“While an autopsy proved to be inconclusive in determining the manner and cause of death, foul play was not suspected in the man’s death,” Moxxy said in a press release.
Police described the body as belonging to a white man with blue eyes and short gray hair who was between 60 and 80 years old, standing at approximately 5 feet and 4 inches tall and weighing 118 pounds. However, they were unable to find any identification for him.
The body became known only as “John Doe” until the Clearwater Police Department decided to enlist Moxxy’s services, the press release says:
In a renewed effort to bring answers to the case, Moxxy Forensic Investigations, in collaboration with the Clearwater Police Department, utilized investigative genetic genealogy as a means to provide investigators with a lead about the man’s identity. Upon receiving a DNA profile of the unidentified man, it was uploaded to GEDmatch Pro, a DNA database that allows members of the public to share their DNA to be utilized in law enforcement cases.
“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,” said Kaycee Connelly, the team lead for the case. “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.”
Over several months, a team of nine genealogists was able to trace the unidentified man’s ancestry as far back as the mid-1700s, when his connections a couple living in Bristol, England.
After identifying a potential candidate for the man, the team contacted his next-of-kin — Gleed’s son — to obtain a swab of DNA from his cheek that they could compare to the unidentified man’s profile. A test “determined that the relationship between the two was that of a parent-child relationship,” Moxxy says.
Gleed was 84 when he died. Born on July 29, 1909, he was the son of two immigrants who had moved to the U.S. from Somerset and Gloucestershire, England.
“Moxxy Forensic Investigations extends our sincere gratitude to Intermountain Forensics for their invaluable assistance in this case,” the nonprofit said. “We are also deeply thankful to everyone who contributed by uploading to GEDmatch, the relatives who willingly offered their support, and Sergeant Michael Beavers along with the Clearwater Police Department for placing their trust in us to help identify Edman Eric Gleed.”
