Sleuths Solve Case Of Unidentified Teenage Hitchhiker In Bibb County

CENTREVILLE, AL — Bibb County Coroner CW West had an uncharacteristic response when he first received the news. He broke down and cried.

"With him being gone for 60 years, I just knew in the back of my mind there probably wasn’t much hope for him," West told Patch Sunday after learning that forensic investigators had solved a decades-old case involving an unidentified teenage hitchhiker killed in a 1961 car wreck near the Bibb and Shelby county line. "That's the reality and when I found out we found him I cried. I'm a grown man and hardly ever cry and I cried. It was very emotional."

West is one of several coroners and public officials to have dedicated hours and resources in the hopes of identifying the boy killed in the crash, but few answers would come until the case was put into the hands of a team of independent investigators and forensic genealogists. Following their work on the case, they now believe they can potentially close the book on a mystery that has captivated west Alabama for more than half a century.

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The announcement was made over the weekend on the YouTube channel of online sleuth Gray Hughes by Identifinders International — an investigative firm that incorporates forensic genetic genealogy when processing DNA samples. Hughes' company — Gray Hughes Investigates —served as underwriters for the investigation on behalf of the Bibb County Coroner's Office, giving thousands of dollars toward the effort.

According to Indentifinders, the case represents the oldest case of a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children subject ever solved by genetic genealogy.

It was through burgeoning technology and persistence that investigators were able to identify 15-year-old Daniel Paul Armantrout as the teen killed on the night of March 27, 1961.

The teen was affectionately known as "Danny" and had survived polio as a child. This fact was corroborated by accounts from those who gave him a ride that faithful and tragic day who said the unidentified teen had walked with a limp.

The teen's body would be put on display at a local funeral home after it was recovered, with pictures published in newspapers across the southeast in the hopes of finding next-of-kin for the young man.

He was found with no identification in his wallet and, at the time of his death, was in possession of only some pocket change, a pack of Pall Mall cigarettes and a picture of himself and a young girl. Investigators have speculated the girl was someone he potentially met on his hitchhiking travels, and possibly an explanation for a crude tattoo carved into his arm that read: "RY + Love."

However, it would ultimately be his recovered DNA and the dogged work of forensic genealogists that would bring long-awaited answers to the case.

"The credit goes to the long list of people who never forgot Danny," Forensic Genealogist Allison Peacock told Patch on Sunday. "To quote our client, Medical Examiner CW West, 'If one person in his story over the past 60 years had forgotten him or given up when it was tough, this might not have happened.'"

Danny, as he would later be referred to by his brother, was the passenger in a truck driven by a Bibb County man that struck a guardrail on Highway 25 near the River Bend bridge, causing the vehicle to plunge into the depths of the Cahaba River below.

Newspapers at the time said the fatal wreck occurred roughly fives miles from Centerville, with the vehicle crashing into water that was roughly 20 feet deep. The driver was able to escape the dark waters, but his teenage passenger — who had up to that point been a nameless hitchhiker — was critically injured and ultimately drowned. A dive team recovered his body and a widespread effort was immediately launched to identify the teenager.

It is worth noting that one newspaper account said the driver of the car, identified as 37-year-old James Arthur White of Cottondale, was killed seven months later when his car struck an embankment roughly eight miles away from where the crash had left Danny dead. A retelling of the incident that killed White appeared under the headline "Death Rode Again."

Despite the investigation initially failing to identify the young man, the case was met with an outpouring of community support and interest at the time.

While interest in the case had understandably waned in the decades that followed, it never truly disappeared, as the torch was passed to the next generation of investigators and public officials.

In 2016, the body of the "Bibb County John Doe" was exhumed in the hopes of using new technology to identify him and hopefully bring a long-awaited close to the case. To this day, the headstone above his final resting place reads as follows:

UNKNOWN

KILLED IN AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT

MARCH 27, 1961

UNKNOWN IN LIFE

BUT RECOGNIZED IN DEATH

"Members of the community who were key to keeping the story alive were Mr. West and Jim Oakley who was a pallbearer at Danny's funeral. Identifinders' founder Colleen Fitzpatrick reached out to [the Bibb County Coroner] to see if we could help work the case," Peacock said of first becoming involved. "He had just taken over for his predecessor and didn't know where the samples were. When he told her they were "somewhere in North Texas" and he'd look for the paperwork, Colleen instantly knew right where the exhumed remains from 2016 were sitting. And we were off to the races."

West then said once the samples were recovered from the University of North Texas in Denton, they were sent to a non-profit lab in Salt Lake City, Utah. This resulted in a hit on potential relatives, eventually leading to the discovery of possible siblings.

When the Ah-Ha Moment occurred, though, which came after several sleepless nights, Peacock said she and fellow genealogist Misty Gillis focused on screening hundreds of names looking for his brothers.

"We knew we'd not be able to tell anyone who our boy was until we could get family confirmation and know their wishes," she said.

Eventually, one of Danny's brothers who currently resides in Florida was contacted, thus setting the stage for a final closing chapter in the life of a teenager who had been unnamed for over half a century.

"I was very shocked, but very relieved, just to be honest," West said of receiving the news of the breakthrough in the case. "We’ve already located the brother and he’s going to come up and meet us all and have a little memorial service over there at the gravesite and have the opportunity to see his final resting place."

The story was one typical to the time, as it is speculated that Danny left a troubled home life when his parents had divorced. He reportedly had hopes of joining the military and even told one Good Samaritan who gave him a ride that he was looking to go to California, where the Marine Corps was having an enlistment event.

In making preparations to formally remember Danny's life, Peacock said the sheriff's office has been collecting archived information on the town and its connection to the story, which includes poems from local schoolchildren who, in-part, helped raised funds for Danny's burial in 1961.

"And we're launching a nationwide search for Danny's older brother David, who is still missing," she pointed out. "We're also looking forward to getting Donald's DNA into genealogy databases in order to assist with this. And to sharing the family tree we built for Danny with his brother."

In a statement to Patch, Gray Hughes said helping to give someone's name back is one of the most rewarding experiences of his life as an independent true crime investigator.

"Knowing that a man now knows what happened his brother and there is now a whole new story, and an amazing story around him is incredible," he said. "I plan on continuing to fund these types of cases as a long as I am able to."

A press conference will be live-streamed Monday at 2 p.m. by the Centreville Press newspaper, as more details on the investigation are made public by Bibb County officials. For the time being, though, West said he has already set plans into motion.

"I'm definitely going to get his headstone updated and probably get him a new one," West said. "I'm not sure what we will do with the old headstone, but as far as right now, I know we’re going to replace it."

This story has been updated with a statement from Gray Hughes Investigates — the firm that financed the successful research by Identifinders International.

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