Found Deceased PA - Daniel Niehaus, 59, Penn Hills, 28 May 2013

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Daniel Niehaus
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Penn Hills resident, a Trib employee, missing for more than year

Just over a year ago, Penn Hills resident Daniel Niehaus, then 59 years old, called in sick to his job at Trib Total Media. He never returned.

Read more: http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/y...6190452-74/missing-case-niehaus#ixzz33ELm1JBr
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook
 
Daniel Niehaus
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Penn Hills resident, a Trib employee, missing for more than year



Read more: http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/y...6190452-74/missing-case-niehaus#ixzz33ELm1JBr
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

Wish they'd given us a little more info. Was he married? Did he like to visit the casinos in Atlantic City? Had he disappeared before? Did he have health problems? Is his car missing? His cellphone? His wallet? I don't want to compromise an investigation, and they say it's been extensive, but they don't give people much to look for. The car would be a crucial item, unless it's already been found.
 
Wow, missing for a year without any background on him or his disappearance? This is as difficult as finding someone without a name! Cases go cold so quickly, and those first few days are critical. Sad this wasn't released sooner.
 
PA - Daniel Niehaus, 59, Alegheny County, Penn Hills, In Western PA


NamUs MP 21041
- https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/case_report_html/21041:

Truck and Keys were at his home.


http://pennsylvaniamissing.com/niehausdaniel.html:

No Dentals [Wore Dentures], No Fingerprints, but DNA Underway.


5/30/14 via LOS2188: http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/y...6190452-74/missing-case-niehaus#ixzz33ELm1JBr:

Now $5,000 Reward from Trib Total Media.


June 2013: http://www.wtae.com/news/local/alle...eward-offered-for-information/20478892#!SDc5O


May The Added Media Attention Produce Results.
 
Not married, no cell phone. Well, let me qualify that..no cell phone that anyone is aware of unless he had a pre-paid like a tracfone. Never disappeared before. Very reliable at his job. What is troubling is that if he went anywhere, he drove, yet his truck was in the garage.
 

From above link:
Bones found in Avalon in April 2014 have been identified as belonging to a Trib Total Media employee who went missing in 2013, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office tells Channel 11’s news exchange partners at TribLIVE.

A lab in Texas confirmed Friday that DNA from the bones matched Niehaus’ DNA, according to TribLIVE. The cause of his death has yet to be determined by the Medical Examiner's Office.

Trib Total Media is offering a $10,000 reward for information about Niehaus’ death.

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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!
 
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!
 
No cause of death nor manner of death could be established.

No leads. Very sad.

I wonder whether he was picked up by someone since his truck remained in the garage. He had no phone but did he have a computer at home?


No, he didn't have a computer. He lived a very simple life, spartan by today's standards.

Dan was ill when he disappeared. Tuesday, May 28, 2013 was the day after Memorial Day. He'd called off work and went to a "Wellness Center". While there, he got sick (vomiting) and was told that he needed to go see his regular doctor. He made it home (truck in the garage) and the purchases he had made at the Wellness Center that day were found on the kitchen table. He'd also vomited at home. This is one of the reasons I can't see him walking 2.5 miles to the river. He was too sick.

All of us in the neighborhood are usually pretty aware of what goes on ... strange noises, strange cars, a deer getting hit by a car and it truly disturbs me to this day that we all may have missed something. Thing is, Tuesday is the normal trash pickup day. Put your trash out Monday evening, it's picked up Tuesday. But this was the day after Memorial Day and trash pickup was pushed to Wednesday because of the holiday. Tuesday night, hear a strange noise, look out and see a neighbor dragging their trash to the curb. And chalk up any other noises as the same thing. So if something happened at his house or in front of his house - yes, we all missed it.

As far as someone picking him up - it's just out of character, especially at night. He was a quiet, private man and rarely was anyone at his home but him.
 
He might have had a secret life noone knew about. That's why I was asking if he had a computer.

Fact is he either left his house on foot and by his own decision or someone came round to pick him up. If this happened at night there was no way for you to notice.

Is it known what made him so ill? Did he suffer from a serious condition and decided it's better to leave this world on his own terms as long as he was still capable? From how you describe him I would imagine he wouldn't have wanted to become dependent on anyone. Did you see any physical changes in him in the months prior, like weight loss for example?
 
Fact is he either left his house on foot and by his own decision or someone came round to pick him up. If this happened at night there was no way for you to notice.

Or an accident or foul play which may never be known without a cause of death. If only the rest of his remains were found, maybe a cause of death could be determined.
 
Dan got a mention at the end of this article. He worked for the Trib and, it seems, they have not forgotten him.

“We found him, so he’s not a missing person. It’s still just a question of how it happened,” Burton said at the time. “We’re not sure what happened.”

 
6237924_web1_Dan-Niehaus-001

Tribune-Review file
Former Tribune-Review employee Dan Niehaus is pictured in this undated photo.

Dan Niehaus was a quiet man who preferred to keep a low profile.
People who knew him hope new information emerges that could help break the silence surrounding circumstances of his disappearance a decade ago.

Robert Miklos said he and Niehaus worked side-by-side for several years tying up bundles of Pennysavers for editions of the Tribune-Review. When Niehaus didn’t show up to work at the West Deer plant where they worked on May 28, 2013, Miklos said he was surprised.

“I don’t ever remember him missing work,” said Miklos of Penn Hills, who has worked for the Trib since 2005.

Niehaus, also of Penn Hills, was 49 at the time of his disappearance. He had been working for the Trib since Nov. 6, 2005.

Of their time working side-by-side, Miklos said, “He didn’t talk too much. He didn’t talk about anything. He was just very quiet and very private.”

Co-workers reported Niehaus missing and handed out flyers about him to area businesses. They scoured the woods near Niehaus’ Lime Hollow Road home, but came up empty.

A year after his disappearance, a West View Water Authority employee found human remains along the Ohio River in Avalon. Researchers in Texas said DNA from those bones matched a sample provided by Niehaus’ family.

Then in July 2015, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that the remains belonged to Niehaus but did not declare a cause of death.
 
RSBM

Thank you for posting this @imstilla.grandma

Dan's case is just as baffling today as it was ten years ago. It does my heart good to know that the folks at the Trib have not forgotten him.
 

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