ROSS COUNTY, Ohio — The Ross County Coroner’s Office on Wednesday released the identity of a man who was the subject of a 28-year-old cold case.
Ward Thomas was born in Muskingum County on Sept. 5, 1918. He was a patient at the Chillicothe VA Medical Center when he was reported missing on May 6, 1972. The hospital, local law enforcement agencies and family members conducted an extensive search for Thomas but were unsuccessful.
The Licking County Probate Court, the county where Thomas and his wife lived, declared him dead on June 10, 1977.
In 1996, human remains — specifically a skull — were found on a sand bar in the Scioto River behind the Chillicothe Correctional Institute by staff members. At the time, investigators were not able to identify the remains with the technology they had.
In 2022, investigators reopened the case and sent the remains for DNA testing. The test results identified the remains as male, but a DNA match was not found.
With help from the nonprofit organization DNA Doe Project and the new Investigative Genetic Genealogy, the remains were identified as Thomas. The identity was confirmed by using a comparison mitochondrial DNA.
The coroner’s office said the case is closed in the identification portion. The cause and manner of Thomas' death are not being looked into at this time.
Thomas is survived by his nieces and nephews and the family wishes to remain private at the time, according to the coroner’s office.
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