The identity of the Marine and Vietnam veteran found after being “violently murdered” in a shallow grave in a wooded area in Pomona Park, Florida, in December 1980 has been identified, the sheriff’s office confirmed.
William Irving Monroe III was shot and suffered blunt force trauma to the chest and a hairline fracture at the base of his skull, Putnam County Sheriff Gator DeLoach said at a news conference Friday.
Monroe was previously known as John Doe #36 and was believed to have been a migrant worker before his identity was discovered.
Last June, DeLoach said, “The biological samples we have obtained have deteriorated, so identification is unlikely.” However, the Osram Institute continues to construct workable DNA samples, and after extensive work on their part, they are now able to obtain viable samples collected from biological material obtained as evidence. It’s done. ”
By September, investigators were looking into the family tree of possible family connections to Monroe, including possible siblings. By January, officials said there was a possible link between the remains and Mr. Monroe, which they said was “promising because there is no record of Mr. Monroe after 1979.”
DeLoach said investigators called Monroe’s brother and learned he was “not a migrant worker as previously thought, but someone with ties to Putnam County, specifically Pomona Park.” Stated.
Monroe’s ex-wife is raising their two sons there, including son Michael, who was only 8 years old when his father disappeared and was also present at Friday’s press conference. Monroe’s other son, Chris, died in a car accident in 1994.
DeLoach said Monroe’s family had believed for years that she may have been killed in the Virgin Islands, but “now we know unequivocally that was not the case. This is one piece of the puzzle.” “It may be just a department, but now we give them peace of mind knowing that we were killed.” We have identified a brother who will be appropriately memorialized. ”
DeLoach said Monroe’s father had hired a private investigator when she first went missing, but Monroe had been bouncing from state to state before she was killed, leading to a missing person investigation. It is said that they were not able to obtain it.
Investigators are currently focused on finding the suspect.
Monroe was last seen at a convenience store in 1980, when a driver at the labor camp said he picked up a person matching the description of Monroe’s body.
“We wanted to identify the victim because we know every victim has a family,” Sheriff’s Office Lt. Chris Stallings told WJXX-TV.
Monroe’s brother, Richard Monroe, told the station that William suffered from Vietnam-related PTSD and stopped communicating with his family in 1980.
His son Michael told WJXX that his father was his “hero.”
“I went everywhere with him, so when he was gone, I was very tired,” he said. “I’ve wondered about that my whole life. Just knowing that he was found and that I wasn’t abandoned as a child… I’m so overwhelmed, I don’t know how else to describe it. Hmm. It’s shocking.”
