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.
In June last year, Professor DeLoach said: “Due to the deterioration of the biological samples we have obtained, identification seems unlikely.” However, the Osram Institute continued to construct workable DNA samples and, after much effort, was able to make an identification. Obtain viable samples collected from biological material that we had as evidence. ”
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Marine and Vietnam veteran William Irving Monroe III has been identified 43 years after he was “violently murdered.” (Putnam County Sheriff’s Office)
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 discovered that he was “not a migrant worker as previously thought, but someone with ties to Putnam County, specifically Pomona Park.” Ta.
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.
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DeLoach said Monroe’s family had believed for years that she may have been murdered in the Virgin Islands, adding, “Now we know unequivocally that is not the case, and this is just one piece of the puzzle.” “It may be only a matter of time, but now we give our families peace of mind knowing that we were murdered.” We have identified a brother who will be appropriately memorialized. ”
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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 he 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.”
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“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 he wasn’t abandoned when I was a child… I’m overwhelmed. I don’t know how else to describe it. shock.”
