45-Year-Old John Doe Case Solved By North Jersey Students

Forty-five years after a man's body was found in the Atlantic Ocean — off the shore of Atlantic City — he now has a name.

"Atlantic City John Doe," found in May 1981, has been identified as former Coast Guard official Glen Napoleon Burbage, with the help of New Jersey college students.

The Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center — which has helped solve dozens of cases nationwide through DNA investigation — announced Thursday morning that the case had been solved.

Burbage's remains were recovered on May 22, 1981, after people in a recreational boat spotted a body a mile off the coast of Atlantic City, said an IGG representative.

Burbage, a retired U.S. Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer, had disappeared two months earlier. He was 59 years old.

In March 1981, he flew from Charleston, S.C., to Atlantic City and was never heard from again, IGG representatives said. He was reported missing on March 23, 1981.

A U.S. government report said he picked up his luggage at the airport. He was declared dead on March 23, 1988.

Recently, Ramapo's certificate program — in which students, professors, and volunteers use family trees and DNA clues to solve cases — began investigating the case, which became part of an international investigative genealogy bootcamp.

After students theorized that the unidentified man might be Burbage, the New Jersey State Police looked into the matter and found that he had traveled to Atlantic City and disappeared.

DNA From Child

The State Police Missing Persons Unit worked with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to get a DNA sample from one of Burbage’s children.

The New Jersey State Police Central Laboratory confirmed the identification this past July.

“For 45 years, Glen Burbage had a name and a family, even though investigators did not yet know who he was,” said Cairenn Binder, director of the Ramapo College IGG Center. “Investigative genetic genealogy gives us a way to revisit cases that once seemed to have reached the limits of available technology."

How Did He Die?

While Burbage's family now knows that he has passed away, officials still don't know how or why.

The state police are still investigating.

Anyone with information regarding Burbage's disappearance or death is asked to contact the New Jersey State Police Missing Persons Unit at missingpinformation@njsp.gov. Anonymous tips are welcome.

To learn more about the Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center, see ramapo.edu/IGG.

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