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- A skull found on the banks of the Delaware River in Pennsylvania three-and-a-half decades ago has been identified as that of a man believed to have murdered his longtime girlfriend in New Jersey, authorities say. was given, whose body was found. Years ago on the New Jersey side of the river.
- The Bucks County District Attorney’s office said Monday that detectives and a private forensic DNA lab have identified a skull found on a riverbank in Morrisville in 1986 as that of 31-year-old Richard Thomas Alt, who was last seen by his parents. Was seen on Christmas Eve in 1984 and reported missing to Trenton police in early 1985.
- District Attorney Matt Weintraub said Alt and his girlfriend were alleged victims of homicide in New Jersey. A spokeswoman for the bureau told the Mercer County prosecutor Monday that the death of Laurie Suydom, found in a river in Trenton in April 1985, is treated as an unsolved murder, while Ault’s case is treated as a missing person.
Pennsylvania: Authorities say a skull found on the banks of the Delaware River in Pennsylvania three-and-a-half decades ago has been identified as that of a man believed to have murdered his longtime girlfriend in New Jersey. whose body was found the previous year in the New Jersey side of the river.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s office said Monday that detectives and a private forensic DNA lab have identified a skull found on a riverbank in Morrisville in 1986 as that of 31-year-old Richard Thomas Alt, who was last seen by his parents. Was seen on Christmas Eve in 1984 and reported missing to Trenton police in early 1985.
District Attorney Matt Weintraub said Alt and his girlfriend were alleged victims of homicide in New Jersey. A spokeswoman for the bureau told the Mercer County prosecutor Monday that the death of Laurie Suydom, found in a river in Trenton in April 1985, is treated as an unsolved murder, while Ault’s case is treated as a missing person.
“I can’t imagine losing a family member even for a day, let alone 37 years. The wait is now over for Mr. Alt’s family,” Weintraub said in a statement. “I’m pleased that we can give him peace of mind with this recognition and finally return his remains to his family .
Weintraub acquired Texas-based Othram Inc. who used forensic genome sequencing and forensic genetic phylogenetics to identify a skull found by a fisherman on the river bank in June 1986 by a Morrisville boat ram.
The county coroner’s office entered the skull into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database. Prosecutors said last September, detectives sent the skull to Othrum after executives at The Woodlands, a Texas-based company, said they had found a possible match in a public genealogy database.
The DNA contributor, a 49-year-old Florida woman, told detectives on Jan. 4 that she was 11 years old when her father went missing in Trenton, Alt. Prosecutors said he agreed to share his DNA results from the genealogy site with Othrum, which said four days later that the father-son relationship had been confirmed.
Bucks County prosecutors said they consider their investigation closed “due to lack of evidence that a crime was committed in Bucks County.”
