Identified! MA - Fairhaven-Skeletal WM 30-40 Shot in Woods-UP58261-Apr'85 - Keith Olson

[YaYa_521]

Date Body Found April 8, 1985
Estimated Year of Death 1982-1984
Estimated PMI--
Inventory of Remains--
Condition of Remains - Not recognizable - Near complete or complete skeleton
Location Found Fairhaven, Massachusetts
Circumstances of Recovery - Found in the woods.

Male, White / Caucasian
Estimated Age Group Adult - Pre 50
Estimated Age Range (Years) 38-48
Height 5' 9"(69 inches) , Measured
Weight 165 lbs, Estimated
Hair Color Unknown
Eye Color Unknown

NamUs #UP58261
NamUs Case Created June 24, 2019
ME/C Case Number1985-10-0130

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

 

[imstilla.grandma]

CASE #4

It was April 8, 1985, when skeletal remains were found off Interstate 195 in Fairhaven.

The medical examiner determined the murder victim had been shot to death.

“Further investigation reveals this might’ve happened two years prior to the body being found,” Quinn said.

Investigators determined the victim was likely a white man in his 30s or 40s, but no evidence other than bullets were found.

An examination at an FBI lab in Washington, D.C., found the homicide victim was approximately 5 feet, 9 inches tall and was likely murdered one to three years prior to the discovery of the remains.

A DNA sample is currently undergoing genetic genealogy testing as investigators work to identify the victim.

NBC 10 I-Team: District attorney reexamines John and Jane Doe cases of Bristol County

Unsolved cases involving unidentified human remains are being thrust back into the spotlight on the South Coast, years after they went cold.

turnto10.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

CASE #4 (Unidentified Male Skeletal Remains – Fairhaven Homicide – 1986) ‘I think 1986 is a typo?

On April 8, 1985, human remains were found in a wooded area along the westbound side of Route 195 in Fairhaven. The Fairhaven Police responded to the scene and recovered the skeleton of an adult male and the remnants of his clothing. During the recovery of the skeletonized body, police recovered a number of spent projectiles.

The recovered remains were initially sent to the Medical Examiner’s office who determined that the manner of death was a homicide. The remains were then sent to the FBI laboratory in Washington, DC for further examination which revealed that the homicide victim was a male, likely Caucasian (although other races could not conclusively be ruled out), approximately 5’ 9” and likely in his 30s or 40s.

The examination also suggested that the victim was likely murdered 1 to 3 years prior to the discovery of his body (suggesting the murder occurred between 1983-1985). It is further believed that the victim may have been of slight to medium build and wore a size 10 ½” shoe. In 2020, a DNA sample was recovered and is currently undergoing additional genetic genealogy testing to assist in the identification.

DA Quinn's "Unidentified Bodies Project" Results in Identification of Fall River John Doe After 17 Years - Bristol County District Attorney

Bristol County District Attorney’s Office Thomas M. Quinn III District Attorney Press Release September 1, 2022 In April, Bristol County District Attorney Tom Quinn announced the expansion of his successful Cold Case Unit to include a renewed effort to identify unidentified bodies and human...

bristolda.com

 

[iulia]

His NamUs page has been removed.

 

[faithx]

Bristol DA's office IDs murder victim's remains 40+ years later

It’s been nearly four decades since a man’s skeleton was found on the side of the highway.

www.wpri.com

He has been identified as 27-year-old Keith Olson of Cranston, Rhode Island. Keith was reported missing in April 1981 and was last seen leaving a home with two unidentified men. His girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, who had ties to the mafia and died in 2019, is one of the suspects in his murder.

 

[dotr]

'Nov 20, 2023
''A new initiative by the Bristol County District Attorney's Office led to a breakthrough in a case dating back to 1985'.

Bristol DA's office IDs murder victim's remains 40+ years later

It’s been nearly four decades since a man’s skeleton was found on the side of the highway.

www.wpri.com

It wasn’t until Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn III launched the Unidentified Bodies Project that the skeleton found on the side of the highway would be linked to Olson’s disappearance.

Keith Olson (Courtesy: Bristol County District Attorney’s Office)
Quinn said detectives decided to send the unidentified remains to Othram, a forensic genetic genealogy laboratory based in Texas.

It wouldn’t take long for the lab to trace the skeleton’s DNA back to Olson’s family.


Their DNA matched the unidentified remains, according to Quinn, confirming that Olson was the man who had been killed and dumped on the side of the highway''

 

[othram]

Here is our story: After 38 years, Fairfield John Doe (1985) is Identified.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Victim in unsolved 1980s homicide case identified as R.I. man using DNA evidence - The Boston Globe

Keith Olson, formerly of Cranston, R.I., was 27 years old when he went missing in 1981.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[arielilane]

“Keith Olson, our son and brother, was a very, very much loved, endeared and respected member of our family and is deeply missed,” they said in a statement through the Bristol District Attorney’s Office. “Keith’s disappearance has been the most horrible experience our family has ever faced. The not knowing and the longing for him to come home has long been a tremendous devastation. This was especially so for our mother, Sheila. Our mother had tried relentlessly and at great lengths to find her son and our brother.”

Skeletal remains of homicide victim found off highway identified after nearly 40 years

Nov 29th, 2023, 4:18 pm


The breakthrough came when law enforcement got the help of Othram, a private laboratory in Texas, and the FBI’s Investigative Genetic Genealogy Team.

Officials said the efforts successfully developed a genetic profile from DNA evidence recovered from the skeletal remains.

With the profile, investigators used forensic genetic genealogy (FGG) that compares the profile to thousands of other DNA profiles and establishes a family tree related to the unknown individual, authorities said.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

"We're going to drive cold cases to extinction," said Michael Vogen of Texas-based Othram, the lab that processed the Olson case. "[We] take really highly degraded, contaminated small amounts of crime scene DNA and figure out who that DNA belongs to."

Using DNA to crack New England's unsolved killings: ‘We're going to drive cold cases to extinction'

When a driver discovered a human skeleton along the side of on Interstate 195 in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, in 1985, investigators got straight to work, trying to piece together clues in an effort to learn who the remains belonged to. The process was thorough and painstaking, with law enforcement...

www.nbcboston.com