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Richard Thomas Alt, a 31-year-old Trenton man, was last seen by loved ones on Christmas Eve in 1984, said Bucks District Attorney Matthew Weintraub in a statement.
Shortly after, Alt and his girlfriend disappeared. Both were suspected homicide victims, and police recovered the woman's body in Mercer County, New Jersey the following April, Weintraub said.
But Alt never turned up, leaving his loved ones without answers or closure for nearly four straight decades.
“I can’t even imagine wondering and worrying about a lost family member for even a day, let alone for 37 years," the DA said. "That wait is now over for Mr. Alt’s family."
The long process of Richard Alt's identification began in June 1986, when a Bucks County fisherman walked into the Buckingham Township Police Department to turn over the human skull he'd reeled in near the Morrisville boat ramp.
The skull languished in evidence lockers and storage rooms until October 2019, when it was briefly examined during a murder case. It was soon turned back over the Coroner's Office, which entered it into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database, authorities said.
The big break wouldn't come until last September when detectives sent the skull to Houston-based forensic genealogy firm Othram, Inc. Then, earlier this month, the Texas team reached out to Bucks authorities and told them they'd found a match.
The genetic contributor? A 49-year-old Florida woman, who was only 11 years old when her father went missing in Trenton in 1984.
For Pennsylvania authorities, the investigation is over. There's not enough evidence to believe that the crime was committed in Bucks County, DA Weintraub says.
For its part, the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office says both murders remain officially unsolved.
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