By Joseph Goldstein

With old-fashioned detective work and newer DNA tests, the New York City medical examiner’s office has made about 50 identifications since it began the project in 2010. Courtesy of Chang Lee/The New York Times

On a winter’s night in early 2004, after a late visit at his parents’ house near Cleveland, Javier Reveron called his mother to let her know he had driven home safely. Then he vanished.

Evidence would point to New York. A plane ticket was purchased and used. A car parked near La Guardia Airport was broken into, and some of Reveron’s things were found: his wallet, a driver’s license, business cards and a banana peel. There would be sightings, most likely false, in places like Queens and Ohio. Then the trail went dry.

But about six years after his disappearance, the New York City medical examiner’s office discovered what happened to Reveron.

The office is undertaking an ambitious effort to identify the nameless dead in the city’s potter’s field, seeking to capitalize on the expertise that it gained over the last decade identifying remains from the World Trade Center attack.

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Source: The New York Times