The Boyd County, Kentucky Coroner’s Office said it has identified the body found floating in the Ohio River. Catlettsburg Fire Chief Greg Payne told me that boats in the water first spotted the body around 6:30 am last Thursday. It was floating in the river around the 1000 block in Catlettsburg. Boaters contacted the police and first responders retrieved the body from the water.
Shared 4500 Times
Coroner Mark Hammond posted a photo of a tattoo found on the body and asked for your help to identify the victim. “First of all, I want to thank everyone that has commented, shared, called, or emailed about the unidentified person. As of this morning, the post just from this page has reached over 125,000 people and shared out 4500 times.”
Facebook users commented with suggestions, links to stories about missing persons, and other helpful bits of information.
According to Hammond, his office spent, “Many hours yesterday and into last night reaching out and following leads.”
Unfortunately, they were not able to positively ID the victim.
Fingerprints and DNA
Hammond sent the body is on to Frankfort for further examination. “We will try to fingerprint the decedent. If fingerprinting cannot be done, we will be reaching back out to specific missing person families for possible DNA testing.”
Hammond said the power of social media and media, in general, were a huge help in the case.
The Victim
The Chief said the body was a man. He appeared to be in his thirties. He described the victim as:
- Approximately 5’10” to 6′ tall
- 175 to 200 lbs
- Short medium brown beard
- Very short medium brown hair
- Receding hairline
He had a tattoo located on the back of the victim’s upper left arm just above the elbow. The tattoo read ‘Bella” in script. It is surrounded by three blue suns.
Positive ID
The coroner said the dead man was positively identified as Mitchell Dean of Huntington West Virginia.
Mr. Dean was 41 years of age and had been reported missing by his mother approximately 10 days ago. The coroner thanked the public for their help in the case.
