Bucks County Detectives partnered with Othram Inc., a private forensic DNA laboratory based in Texas, to identify a skull found in 1986 on the banks of the Delaware River in Morrisville, District Attorney Matt Weintraub announced today.
Using Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® and forensic genetic genealogy, the investigation concluded that the skull belonged to Richard Thomas Alt who was 31 years old when he was reported missing to the Trenton Police Department in early 1985. He was last seen on Christmas Eve 1984 by his parents.
“I can’t even imagine wondering and worrying about a lost family member for even a day, let alone for 37 years. That wait is now over for Mr. Alt’s family,” Weintraub said. “I’m just glad that we could give them some peace of mind with this identification, and the eventual return of his remains to his family.”
“This would not have been possible but for the technical expertise that Othram provided to us, for free,” Weintraub said. “I hope that this powerful combination of technology and genealogy becomes the template for solving cold and current cases now and in the future.”
At the time of his disappearance, Alt and his girlfriend were suspected homicide victims in New Jersey. Her body was discovered in April 1985 in the Delaware River in Trenton, N.J. The cases remain unsolved, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office considers its investigation closed due to lack of evidence of any crime being committed in Bucks County.
This investigation first began in June 1986 when a fisherman found a human skull on the banks of the Delaware River near the Morrisville Boat Ramp. The fisherman lived in Buckingham Township and took the skull to the Buckingham Township Police Department.
Bucks County Detectives took possession of the human skull in October 2019 during a probe of a homicide investigation, but then relinquished it to the Bucks County Coroner’s Office.
Later that year, the Bucks County Coroner’s Office entered the skull into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) database.
In September 2022, Bucks County Detectives retrieved the skull from the Coroner’s Office and sent it to Othram, Inc. in Texas, for forensic genealogy testing.
Earlier this year, officials from Othram contacted Bucks County Detectives and told them they found a possible match to the skull on a public genealogy database where users can upload their DNA profile.
Building a profile from a contributor on that database, Othram officials believed the skull belonged to Richard Thomas Alt.
Bucks County Detectives spoke to the contributor, a 49-year-old Florida woman, on Jan. 4.
The woman told detectives she was 11 years old when her father, Richard Thomas Alt, went missing in Trenton. She said her father’s girlfriend was murdered in 1985 and her father had not been seen since.
She agreed to share her DNA results from the genealogy site with Othram. Four days later, Othram returned with a confirmed parent/child relationship match to Richard Thomas Alt.
This investigation was conducted by detectives with the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, the Bucks County Coroner’s Office, the Trenton Police Department, and Othram Inc. Othram’s funding for the case was provided by Audiochuck.
Othram, the world’s first private DNA laboratory built specifically to apply the power of modern parallel sequencing to forensic evidence, was founded in 2018, and is located in The Woodlands, Texas.
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