Chain of Custody & The Wooded Ravine Discovery
On April 19, 1981, utility workers surveying land along a drainage ravine near Greenbelt Road and Interstate 95/Capital Beltway in Prince George's County, Maryland, discovered human remains lying in dense underbrush.
Prince George's County Police Department (PGPD) homicide detectives and state medical examiners processed the crime scene. The decedent was partially skeletonized and had been deposited at the site several weeks to months earlier during late winter or early spring 1981.
Autopsy Findings & Forensic Pathology
The autopsy was performed by the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore. The decedent was an African-American male, estimated between 17 and 24 years old, standing approximately 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 9 inches in height and weighing 140 to 155 pounds.
The cause of death was definitively ruled homicide resulting from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and thorax. Ballistic fragments were recovered from the thoracic cavity. Personal effects included a dark nylon jacket, brown corduroy trousers, and athletic shoes, but no identification was found. The victim was cataloged in NamUs as UP1862.
2022 Resolution by DNA Doe Project
In 2021, Prince George's County Police partnered with the DNA Doe Project. Skeletal elements were processed to extract degraded nuclear DNA for high-density SNP genotyping.
Genealogists navigated African-American ancestral lines rooted in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. In 2022, after forty-one years of mystery, authorities announced that Greenbelt John Doe was 19-year-old Eddie Devone of Washington, D.C., who had vanished in early 1981.