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US officials identify ‘Pinnacle Man’ almost five decades after he was found frozen in cave
Officials have identified the ‘Pinnacle Man’ almost five decades after his body was discovered frozen in a cave.
He has been named as 27-year-old Nicolas Grubb, from Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, according to Berks County Coroner’s Office.
On 16 January 1977, just below The Pinnacle, off the Appalachian Trail in Albany, Pennsylvania, two young hikers stumbled across a man’s body.
This summer, the ‘Pinnacle Man’ was identified as Nicolas Paul Grubb. Pic: Berks County Coroner’s Court
It was one of the town’s coldest months on record and the body was, according to newspaper reports at the time, frozen solid.
Despite initial efforts, the body was never claimed.
But, after 47 years, the individual found frozen in the cave has finally been identified.
However, it took authorities decades to reach this point.
Mr Grubb’s family is now reportedly trying to re-bury him in their family plot.
“For 47 years, this man remained unidentified. A nameless figure in a long-forgotten case,” Berks County coroner John Fielding III said during a news conference last week according to Sky News’ US partner NBC News.
He continued: “But today I’m honoured to announce that through the unyielding determination of federal, state and local agencies, the Berks County Coroner’s Office has confirmed the identity of this individual.
“His name is Nicolas Paul Grubb, a 27-year-old man from Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.”
John Doe
After discovering the body at the scenic outlook, authorities set about investigating how it ended up there.
But they found many of their questions remained unanswered, and Mr Grubb spent almost half a century as a John Doe.
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At the time of his death, Mr Grubb was described as between the ages of 25-35, having blue eyes and reddish curly long hair, standing between 5’10 and 5’11 (1.78m-1.80m), and weighing 155lbs (70kg).
An autopsy in 1977 concluded he died after taking his own life.
From this point, the case went cold with little to nothing in the way of leads for 47 years until this summer.
One key issue was that, while the ‘Pinnacle Man’s’ fingerprints were taken, the original set was lost and copies were too poor to use for identification.
Efforts to exhume and conduct a dental analysis of the remains in 2019 also proved unsuccessful.
It looked like authorities would never identify the body until in August, a Pennsylvania state trooper discovered the original fingerprints.
From this point, it only took an FBI expert less than an hour to match the prints to Mr Grubb, who had reportedly served as part of his state’s National Guard.
His family was contacted and confirmed his identity.