A cold case more than two decades old has been solved after new DNA technology was used by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) to identify the remains of a man found near a southwestern Ontario town in 2003.
Police have been actively attempting to identify the body for 21 years, despite determining the death was not suspicious. It wasn’t until last fall that the mystery was officially solved.
The John Doe has been identified as 48-year-old James Raymond Stewart of Detroit, Michigan, who went missing in November 2002, police said in a Jan. 6 press release.
James Raymond Stewart OPP handout photo
Stewart’s body was recovered by police from the Livingston Channel Detroit River, just west of Amherstburg, Ont., on May 29, 2003. The cause of death was undetermined, but foul play was not suspected in his death, according to the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service (OFPS).
The Criminal Investigation Branch of the OPP submitted Stewart’s DNA to a lab in February 2023 for a new kind of testing known as investigative genetic genealogy, police said. The test provided a “presumptive ID” but it wasn’t until September 2024 when one of Stewart’s sisters submitted DNA for comparison that his identity was confirmed.
“After two decades, we were finally able to provide this family with answers about James, thanks to investigative genetic genealogy,” OPP Det.-Insp. Randy Gaynor said in the press release.
“This investigative tool has proven to be invaluable, enabling law enforcement to solve even decades-old cases and offering hope to others facing similar circumstances. Its ability to connect distant relatives through DNA has transformed the landscape of historic homicide and unidentified human remains investigations.”
The OPP took Stewart’s family to see his grave in Amherstburg three months after his identity was confirmed.
“We’re grateful to all of you, Ontario police and this program,” one of Stewart’s sisters said in a video released by the OPP. “It’s closure for us because we had no idea, and both our parents died and had no idea.”
Stewart’s siblings described him as a quiet man who loved jazz music and good food. He served in the United States Navy for three years in the 1970s and then worked at various restaurants in Detroit afterward.
“We’re just celebrating the fact that now we have closure,” his family said. “Now we know where he is. He won’t be a John Doe anymore.”
