East Texas

The remains of a Winnsboro man who went missing in 2004 were finally identified this week.

Bones found during by a surveying crew in July 2005 in Wood County were positively identified as those of Jonathon David Sherman through mitochondrial DNA analysis at University of North Texas.

Sherman, 21, was reported missing in April of 2004, and his skeletal remains were found but not identified the next summer. Officials ruled his death a suicide due to the lack of evidence surrounding the case, the Wood County Sheriff’s Office said.

On Friday, the sheriff’s office was notified of DNA results performed on the skeletal remains by the UNT’s human identification lab.

Wood County Sgt. Reginald Frost said the long wait was due to badly decomposed remains at the time of recovery. They were first sent to the Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas, but standard nuclear DNA tests were inconclusive.

Mitochondrial DNA analysis of bone matter, rather than tissue matter, was then attempted by UNT and the court order to transfer the remains was obtained in March 2006.