Military veteran identified decades after remains found near wildlife area, CO cops say
Human remains were left unidentified for decades after they were found near a Colorado wildlife refuge in 1992, authorities said.
Now, DNA testing has identified those remains as 26-year-old military veteran Etus Thomas “ET” Romero, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office said in a Thursday, March 9, news release.
The remains were found Nov. 28, 1992, near the Walter Walker State Wildlife Area, off River Road in Grand Junction, deputies said.
Initial evidence determined the man had been fatally stabbed, deputies said.
But the remains weren’t identified until January 2023.
In 2022, the skeletal remains were sent to Othram, a private lab in The Woodlands, Texas, that uses forensic genetic genealogy, according to the sheriff’s office.
A DNA profile was created using forensic-grade genome sequencing.
This allowed investigators to find a potential sibling. Once investigators got the sibling’s DNA, they compared it to the unknown man. It was a sibling match, deputies said.
Investigators then identified the man as Romero, the sheriff’s office said, and his cause of death was ruled a homicide.
Romero moved to Grand Junction, Colorado, from New Iberia, Louisiana, in October 1991, deputies said.
He was last known to be working as a restaurant dishwasher. Investigators said he likely died during the summer of 1992.
Grand Junction is about 245 miles west of Denver.
This story was originally published March 10, 2023 at 6:09 PM with the headline "Military veteran identified decades after remains found near wildlife area, CO cops say."
