Authorities identified the remains of Fort Washington’s Nicolas Grubb four decades after discovering his body, reports Caitlin Rearden for 69News. The positive ID resolves a mystery that eluded local and federal authorities for years.
Grubb’s remains were first found in 1977 by hikers along the Appalachian Trail in Albany Township. After no one was able to identify the body, local law enforcement buried it in Potter’s Field Cemetery that same year.
In 2019, local authorities exhumed the body to compare DNA with missing persons, and again in 2023. However, neither time yielded matches. Authorities could not make facial approximations as parts of the facial bones were broken in the exhumation process.
Years later, the break in the case came when a Pennsylvania State Police Officer found Grubb’s original fingerprint card, recorded at the time they originally discovered his body Authorities sent the fingerprints to the FBI and they found a match within an hour.
The prints matched an entry in the database from when Grubb had a police interaction a few years before his death.
Grubb’s next of kin were notified, and they are grateful for the combined efforts of local and federal authorities.
Read more about Fort Washington resident Nicolas Grubb and the decades-long mystery of his remains at 69News.
