Credit: Maël Balland / Unsplash.com
A frozen body found in an Appalachian Trail pinnacle cave identified via fingerprints
It is not often that a cold case is solved at all, let alone 47 years after its discovery. And this, a cold case, in more ways than one.
A frozen body found in cave in northern Berks County 47 years ago was recently identified thanks to matching fingerprints, according to a report by Steven Henshaw of the Reading Eagle on Aug. 27. The John Doe had been nicknamed “Pinnacle Man,” as the cave in which he was found on Jan. 16, 1977, was near the Appalachian Trail’s pinnacle.
Despite years of attempting to match the unknown male with DNA samples, facial reconstructions, or missing persons files, authorities had never found success until now. The state’s researchers even had a Berks County coroner’s office exhuming the body to allow for bone samples to be sent to two different forensic labs.
In the end, Nicolas P. Grubb, 27, of Fort Washington, was identified via a ink-and-paper fingerprint card, thought to have been lost. Within an hour, the nearly half-century-long search ended as prints taken prior to Grubb’s death matched those preserved from the initial autopsy.
For the full story of this lengthy journey, read Henshaw’s story here.
