Credit: DDP
Thirteen years after the remains of a homicide victim were found in Pennsylvania, the DNA Doe Project and their agency partners have identified him as 42-year-old David Anthony Queen. Queen was reported missing to the Baltimore PD on Dec. 8, 2006, seven years before his body was discovered across state lines in West Manchester Township.
On Nov. 18, 2013, tree trimmers stumbled upon a human skeleton near an intersection in West Manchester Township, Pennsylvania. The remains were thought to belong to a Caucasian male, and it was estimated that he stood 5’3” to 5’10” tall and was 30-50 years old at the time of his death. Due to evidence of trauma on his bones, officials classified his death as a homicide.
The West Manchester Township Police later brought this case to the DNA Doe Project, whose expert investigative genetic genealogists work pro bono to identify John and Jane Does. Once a DNA profile had been generated, the team made a surprising discovery—the unidentified man was African American, not Caucasian.
Unfortunately, it was apparent that this would be a challenging case, as all the DNA matches to West Manchester John Doe were distant relatives of his. The closest match shared just 1.7% of their DNA with the unidentified man, and all the other matches shared significantly less than that.
For the next five years, DNA Doe Project volunteers spent many hundreds of hours working to identify West Manchester John Doe. It was clear that he had ancestors from North Carolina but, as time went on, more and more evidence also pointed to a connection to Baltimore. The team leaders worked closely with Sgt. Lance Krout of the West Manchester Township Police to identify potential relatives, and these collaborative efforts succeeded in moving the case forward.
Finally, on Christmas Eve 2025, the team came across a man named David Queen. Though he was a native of Baltimore, Queen’s ancestors had moved to Maryland from North Carolina, and he had family ties to multiple DNA matches of the unidentified man. After finding no recent proof of life for him, the team leaders passed on his name to Sgt. Krout. Less than two weeks later, Sgt. Krout received some critical information - David Queen had been missing for 20 years. Further DNA testing later confirmed that David was, in fact, the man formerly known only as West Manchester John Doe.
“After five years of intensive research, it’s an honor to have played a part in restoring David Queen's name to him,” said team leader Traci Onders. “This identification is a testament to the persistence of our volunteers and the power of collaboration between our team and dedicated investigators like Sgt. Krout.”
The DNA Doe Project is grateful to the groups and individuals who helped solve this case: the West Manchester Township Police, who entrusted us with this case; the Baltimore Police Department, for their assistance in confirming the identification; Astrea Forensics for DNA extraction; HudsonAlpha Discovery for sequencing; Kevin Lord for bioinformatics; GEDmatch Pro and FamilyTreeDNA for providing their databases; our generous donors who joined our mission and contributed to this case; and the DNA Doe Project’s dedicated teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who work tirelessly to bring all our John and Jane Does home.
Republished courtesy of DNA Doe Project