Teen hitchhiker killed in Alabama crash was unidentified for 6 decades — until now
A hitchhiker died in an Alabama crash — and his identity was a mystery for 60 years.
The teen was buried in a grave marked “unknown” as officials worked with few clues to try to figure out who he was, multiple news outlets reported.
That was until now, when investigators on Nov. 2 announced they had identified the boy after six decades.
To help solve the mystery, the Bibb County coroner’s office worked with Identifinders International. The company on its website says it specializes in genetic genealogy, the process of using DNA and historical records to find unknown relatives.
“I really had my doubts at first,” Bibb County Coroner CW West told McClatchy News in a phone interview. “I didn’t know, but I wanted to try. I didn’t want to give up on the boy because everybody deserves a name. That’s somebody’s son. That’s somebody’s brother.”
In March 1961, the boy — now identified as Daniel Paul “Danny” Armantrout — had been hitchhiking through several states before catching a ride outside of Wilton, roughly 35 miles south of Birmingham, AL.com reported. Soon, officials said the car crashed on River Bend Road, hitting a guardrail before going into the Cahaba River.
The boy drowned at age 15, and the driver who survived the crash didn’t know his name, Identifinders International said in a news release.
Over the years, people in Bibb County “paid for the funeral, never closed the file, and have worked to resolve the long standing mystery of his identity,” according to The Bibb Voice news outlet.
Then in 2016, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children paid to have the boy’s body exhumed. But it wasn’t until this year that technology allowed for more advanced DNA testing, officials said.
“This case was challenging because the DNA was severely compromised,” Colleen Fitzpatrick, president of Identifinders, said in a news release. “We pushed the technology and it’s a DNA miracle, really.”
Soon, officials identified Danny, who news outlets report was born in Miami, Florida. They found one of his brothers — a 77-year-old Florida man — but not his other sibling who went missing around the same time.
West said he started tearing up when he got the news that his community had been awaiting for so long.
“I cried on the phone,” West told McClatchy News. “It was very emotional just knowing that this brother is going to have peace of mind knowing where his brother’s at.”
The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for information on Wednesday morning.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 10:16 AM with the headline "Teen hitchhiker killed in Alabama crash was unidentified for 6 decades — until now."
