Wow it took 15 months to do this dna test?
He had left his truck at home and possibly left on foot. Is the Ohio River close to where he lived? Could he have walked there?
RIP Daniel!
Thank you, Elainera, for taking an interest in Dan's case. I knew him and it has been beyond difficult over the past 2+ years to think that I've spent all these years with DN & PA Missing and yet I was helpless when a neighbor went missing and I couldn't find him. It grieves me even more when this man, a white, middle-aged man went missing and the only attention he got was because he was an employee of a local newspaper. If he wasn't, would there be attention paid at all? That is borne out by the fact that his case is still here in the Missing 2010s forum and no one has seen to it that his case is at least marked IDENTIFIED or FOUND DECEASED and moved to the proper forum.
Sorry, I had to say that because it just frustrates me that we pick and choose who deserves the attention. Dan wasn't high-profile ... here or anywhere else. (I'm guessing a mod will snip this).
That said, it's 2 1/2 miles from Dan's house to the Allegheny River, much of that on a 2-lane, long and winding road. IF he went into the Allegheny nearest to his home, he would have traveled down the Allegheny River to "The Point" in Pittsburgh where the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers meet and the Ohio River begins. He would then travel north along the Ohio to where his torso was found, on the banks of the Ohio in Avalon. The rest of his remains have not been found.
As someone who has been in the thick of this since the start, I am having a hard time seeing him walking to the river. What exactly happened, I don't know. I only "know" the theories, the thoughts, the scuttlebutt of those in the neighborhood, nothing that I would post here since it is only what we speak, not necessarily backed up by the facts.
It is also worth mentioning that we, in the neighborhood, wonder if there is a killer amongst us. Dan was about as low risk as one could get. We would never dream this could happen to him.
I sometimes think that Dan would be mortified by the attention - however sparse it has been - he has gotten in the not so clear circumstances of his death. By the same token, I am as mortified by the lack of attention he has gotten due to who he was ... a quiet, private, perhaps anonymous man who was still a son, a brother, an uncle, a neighbor, a perfect neighbor ... a human being who's death should not be an afterthought.
The Trib - his employer - is offering a $10,000 for information about his death. That's gotta tell ya something isn't kosher.
Rest in peace, Dan. I hope you know, somehow, somewhere, we will miss you on your rider mower with the ball cap on. And how you kept your windshield wipers stuck up during the winter so they wouldn't bow or stick to the windshield.
Sigh!