Man Found Dead and Floating Under Bridge Identified Over 20 Years Later

The body of a man found floating in the water under a Bay Area bridge 22 years ago has now been identified, authorities said. 

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said that thanks to DNA testing, the remains discovered in September 2003 were identified as belonging to New York man Robert Craig Whitsett, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Othram, a Texas-based forensic genetic genealogy services company that was involved in Whitsett’s eventual identification, said that his body was found under the Coast Guard Island Bridge, near the 1800 block of Dennison street in Oakland, Calif.

In addition to his skeletal remains, officials found and gathered a number of clothing items, including a blue denim jacket, a red pullover, a button-up checkered shirt, blue denim trousers and running shoes.

Despite a long investigation that followed, the man could not be identified and became known as “Oakland John Doe,” the company stated. His details were submitted to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) in 2017. 

Last year, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, in conjunction with the California Department of Justice – Missing Persons DNA Program, provided evidence to Othram to see if advanced DNA testing could provide a breakthrough in the mystery of Oakland John Doe. 

“Othram scientists used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to build a comprehensive SNP [single-nucleotide polymorphism] profile for the man, which enabled Othram’s in-house forensic genetic genealogy team to conduct a genetic genealogy search and develop new investigative leads in the case,”  the company said in its news release. 

After Othram provided those leads to authorities, a follow-up investigation led to the victim’s potential relatives, said the company. The comparison of a DNA sample collected from a relative with the man’s DNA profile resulted in the positive identification of Whitsett, who was born in New York and went by the name “Craig.”

“The identification of Robert Whitsett represents the 68th case in the State of California where officials have publicly identified an individual using technology developed by Othran,” the company’s news release stated.  

PEOPLE contacted the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday, Sept. 4, for additional information. 

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Othram’s services were also used in a case involving human remains that were found in a wooded area in Knoxville, Tenn., five years ago. Subsequent DNA testing helped identify the remains of Gerald J. Forsman, of Livonia, Mich., according to an Aug. 26 news release shared by the Knox County Regional Forensic Center.