After 31 years, Orange County John Doe (1993) is Identified
Orange County Sheriff’s Office Teams with Othram to Identify a 1993 John Doe
''In October 1993, two hunters stumbled upon the partial skeletal remains of an unidentified individual on an old vacant lot that had been used as a vegetable farm in Orlando, Florida. The remains were provided to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, who conducted an excavation of the area on the following day in an effort to recover additional remains. Upon examination, it was determined that the remains were that of a white male who was between the ages of 45 and 55 years at the time of this death. Due to the limited information and the condition of the man's remains, no other identifying characteristics could be determined. The man's manner of death was determined to be homicide.
Details of the case were entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) as UP553.
''A reference sample was collected from a potential relative and compared to the DNA profile of the man. This comparison confirmed the identity of Orange County John Doe as 48-year-old Richard Wick. Wick moved to Florida from New York and was reported missing by his family, with whom he was in touch with regularly, after he failed to contact them for an extended period of time''.
