DNA Doe: Park County John Doe Identified After 41 Years

Fairplay, CO – October 20, 2020 – The Park County Coroner’s Office (PCCO) and the DNA Doe Project (DDP) announce the identity of a man whose remains were found in a mountainous region outside of Grant, Colorado in February 1974 as Anthony John Armbrust, Jr., born in 1929 in Ohio.  Prior to moving to Colorado’s Front Range, Armbrust spent most of his youth in Ohio and lived a number of years in San Diego, California.

With no vehicle found in the area or any identification on near the remains, the case went cold until Park County Coroner David Kintz, Jr. contacted DDP in the summer of 2019. According to DDP team leaders, the case was challenging, involving approximately 800 hours of volunteer genetic research. The assistance of a family member discovered during research was invaluable to making the final identification.

DDP wishes to acknowledge the contributions of those groups and individuals who helped solve this case: Park County Coroner David E. Kintz, Jr. for entrusting the case to us; Astrea Forensics for extraction; HudsonAlpha Discovery for sequencing; Kevin Lord of Saber Investigations for bioinformatics; GEDmatch and Family Tree DNA for providing their databases; and DDP’s dedicated team of volunteer genealogists who provided PCSO with an identification. We also want to thank our generous donors who contributed funding for the testing to help us solve this case.

About the DNA Doe Project

The DNA Doe Project, Inc. is an all volunteer 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to identify John and Jane Does and return them to their families. The genealogy research is pro bono, but it relies on donations to fund lab costs when agencies cannot afford them. To date DDP has made approximately thirty confirmed identifications, including a 1982 Barron County homicide victim announced in January 2020. Discover more at https://dnadoeproject.org/.