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09-18-2008, 10:14 PM
Fort Myers bones: 3rd victim identified
By WINK News
Story Created: Sep 18, 2008 at 7:12 PM EDT
Story Updated: Sep 18, 2008 at 7:41 PM EDT
FORT MYERS, Fla. - The mystery of eight skeletons discovered in a remote wooded area off Fort Myers' Arcadia Street is slowly beginning to unravel.
On Thursday, police announced they positively identified 23-year-old Jonathon Tihay as one of the eight skeletons. This brings the total identifications to three.
However, the latest identification was nothing more than a fluke according to Tihay's half-sister, Natalie Worthington.She tells WINK News a family friend saw a news story about the discovery of eight skeletons, so she called Natalie at her home in Aurora, Illinois.
"She said "Hey, this really weird thing happened down here, they found some bodies around the time Jon was missing," explained Worthington.
She figured it was a long shot, but contacted detectives anyway. She made the phone call to Fort Myers police eight months ago.
"I just wanted just to see and it just kind of snow balled from there," said Worthington, "When we got that final call it just you know, that sinking pit feeling in your stomach, like ugh, it really was him."
Tihay's family knew something had gone wrong. While they describe him as a drifter, in and out of trouble with the law, he always called. "We had always heard from him on every holiday and every birthday and you know, he never missed a holiday, anything like that. He always called and then all the sudden it stopped," Worthington said that last phone call came in October of 1995.
Tihay had called her mother at 2am asking for money.
Worthington says they hired private investigators to find him, but nothing ever turned up.
Their mother always had hope.
Worthington said, "Probably once a year she would call around the jails to make sure he wasn't in jail somewhere. She would always, always wonder."
Their mother, who so desperately wanted to know what happened to her son, would never find out where he was. Worthington says she passed away in October. But, it was a DNA match taken from a hairbrush Worthington inherited from her mother.
While Worthington's DNA lead detectives on the right track, it was not conclusive. They needed a parent and now had the missing link.
"Hopefully all of this will help someone else come forward and just on a fluke, just call the detective and say "Hey, just in case, say we have this missing person in our family." You never know," said Worthington.
The identification is now giving the family an opportunity to finally grieve for Jonathan.
They plan a memorial service once his remains are turned over to the family.
His identification is also providing detectives with more answers.
Detective Barry Lewis says the three identified men shared a common thread besides being young, white males in their early 20's.
"They were pretty much street wise individuals, type of folks that don't normally hold down a permanent type of job, they're usually living here, living there, sometimes victims of opportunity, they probably also engaged in opportunity type activity," said Detective Lewis.
The three men, identified as Tihay, Erik Kohler, and John Blevins were last heard from in the 1995-96 time frame, leading detectives to believe it's possible all eight skeletons were placed in the woods around that same time.
"That was a very busy year for whatever was going on at that point," said Det. Lewis.
When asked about the theory of a serial killer being responsible, detectives would not say one way or another.
Det. Lewis did say, "You're dealing with 8 people that have been ruled homicide they were all found in a certain location. Does that have great potential?? Yeah, it sure does. Is there anybody we're zeroing in on" No, it's in its infant stage yet."
Fort Myers detectives are now urging families with a missing loved one to come forward, even if they have doubts.
Worthington told WINK News she didn't think her brother could possibly have anything to do with the case that's grabbed national headlines, but decided to call anyway. Now, her family is another step closer to closure.
"We can do it, we have the resources available to continue on with this case, to get more identities made. We just want someone to spark a memory, make that phone call and continue on," said Sgt. Soto, another investigator on the case.
It's believed all eight skeletons belonged to men, between the ages of 18 and 49, who disappeared sometime between the 1980's and 2000.
If you have a missing family member, you can go to any police department and ask if you can give your DNA swab to be sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification.
The agency has been working with the center to identify all eight remains and said on Thursday, they're confident they will find names for all eight men.
http://www.winknews.com/news/local/28626394.html
By WINK News
Story Created: Sep 18, 2008 at 7:12 PM EDT
Story Updated: Sep 18, 2008 at 7:41 PM EDT
FORT MYERS, Fla. - The mystery of eight skeletons discovered in a remote wooded area off Fort Myers' Arcadia Street is slowly beginning to unravel.
On Thursday, police announced they positively identified 23-year-old Jonathon Tihay as one of the eight skeletons. This brings the total identifications to three.
However, the latest identification was nothing more than a fluke according to Tihay's half-sister, Natalie Worthington.She tells WINK News a family friend saw a news story about the discovery of eight skeletons, so she called Natalie at her home in Aurora, Illinois.
"She said "Hey, this really weird thing happened down here, they found some bodies around the time Jon was missing," explained Worthington.
She figured it was a long shot, but contacted detectives anyway. She made the phone call to Fort Myers police eight months ago.
"I just wanted just to see and it just kind of snow balled from there," said Worthington, "When we got that final call it just you know, that sinking pit feeling in your stomach, like ugh, it really was him."
Tihay's family knew something had gone wrong. While they describe him as a drifter, in and out of trouble with the law, he always called. "We had always heard from him on every holiday and every birthday and you know, he never missed a holiday, anything like that. He always called and then all the sudden it stopped," Worthington said that last phone call came in October of 1995.
Tihay had called her mother at 2am asking for money.
Worthington says they hired private investigators to find him, but nothing ever turned up.
Their mother always had hope.
Worthington said, "Probably once a year she would call around the jails to make sure he wasn't in jail somewhere. She would always, always wonder."
Their mother, who so desperately wanted to know what happened to her son, would never find out where he was. Worthington says she passed away in October. But, it was a DNA match taken from a hairbrush Worthington inherited from her mother.
While Worthington's DNA lead detectives on the right track, it was not conclusive. They needed a parent and now had the missing link.
"Hopefully all of this will help someone else come forward and just on a fluke, just call the detective and say "Hey, just in case, say we have this missing person in our family." You never know," said Worthington.
The identification is now giving the family an opportunity to finally grieve for Jonathan.
They plan a memorial service once his remains are turned over to the family.
His identification is also providing detectives with more answers.
Detective Barry Lewis says the three identified men shared a common thread besides being young, white males in their early 20's.
"They were pretty much street wise individuals, type of folks that don't normally hold down a permanent type of job, they're usually living here, living there, sometimes victims of opportunity, they probably also engaged in opportunity type activity," said Detective Lewis.
The three men, identified as Tihay, Erik Kohler, and John Blevins were last heard from in the 1995-96 time frame, leading detectives to believe it's possible all eight skeletons were placed in the woods around that same time.
"That was a very busy year for whatever was going on at that point," said Det. Lewis.
When asked about the theory of a serial killer being responsible, detectives would not say one way or another.
Det. Lewis did say, "You're dealing with 8 people that have been ruled homicide they were all found in a certain location. Does that have great potential?? Yeah, it sure does. Is there anybody we're zeroing in on" No, it's in its infant stage yet."
Fort Myers detectives are now urging families with a missing loved one to come forward, even if they have doubts.
Worthington told WINK News she didn't think her brother could possibly have anything to do with the case that's grabbed national headlines, but decided to call anyway. Now, her family is another step closer to closure.
"We can do it, we have the resources available to continue on with this case, to get more identities made. We just want someone to spark a memory, make that phone call and continue on," said Sgt. Soto, another investigator on the case.
It's believed all eight skeletons belonged to men, between the ages of 18 and 49, who disappeared sometime between the 1980's and 2000.
If you have a missing family member, you can go to any police department and ask if you can give your DNA swab to be sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification.
The agency has been working with the center to identify all eight remains and said on Thursday, they're confident they will find names for all eight men.
http://www.winknews.com/news/local/28626394.html