Excavation crews unearthed human remains from a Hudson Valley home last week, quickly dashing the town’s hopes of finally solving a decades-old missing person case, police said Thursday. .
The skeleton was reportedly discovered on April 16 by workers preparing to build a new home in the town of Paterson. New York State Police.
The badly decomposed body gave few clues to the person’s identity, but investigators confirmed it was not that of Robin Murphy, who mysteriously disappeared at the age of 17 on April 9, 1995. did.
According to police, the victim had been dead for more than 10 years.
The announcement initially sparked excitement throughout Putnam County that the body might be Murphy, who had left his home to meet friends at a local restaurant.
She went missing around the same time as 12-year-old Josette Wright, whose body was found in November of that year not far from where excavators found her body last week.
But hopes of finally solving the case were dashed Saturday when officers confirmed a DNA sample from the body did not match Murphy’s profile.
The administrator of Ms Murphy’s missing persons Facebook page said: “Her family has been through a lot and it would be great to close this case and get some justice.” told Westchester News 12.
Howard Gombert, who is serving a prison sentence in Connecticut for rape, had long been suspected of kidnapping and killing Murphy, but police did not have enough evidence to charge him.
He was also named as a suspect in Wright’s murder by two men who were charged with, and later acquitted of, Wright’s rape and murder.
State police are still working to identify the bodies found and say the case is in the “early stages.”
