TEXAS CITY, Texas – A teenager buried 43 years ago in Texas City with a tombstone that read "unknown youth" has now been identified.
Joseph Spears, 17, ran away from a Mississippi juvenile detention center in July 1973. He died in Texas City a month later when he was struck by a car as he tried to cross the Gulf Freeway. He had no identification on him and after extensive news coverage featuring a composite sketch no one came forward who knew him.
His family didn't know where he was or what happened to him, but in 2013 asked Harrison County, Mississippi, sheriff's investigators to re-open the case and put his information on several missing or unidentified persons websites.
Chelsea Davidson works for Hayes Grace Memorial Cemetery where Spears was buried four decades ago and decided to use the internet to investigate his identity.
She eventually found a possible match using a very unique identifying mark.
"A scar, a cigarette burn on his left wrist. How many people are gonna have that?" Davidson said.
She found Spears' case and contacted authorities in Mississippi who asked the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office to get involved.
"We felt enough to go on to exhume the body," said John Florence, investigator with the Galveston County ME's office.
They were not able to get DNA from the remains, so they got confirmation from Spears' mother, showing her his autopsy photo.
"He has a name now so that's a good thing but I don't think this is anything a mother expects even after 42 years. I hope it does bring closure but in same breath this is very sad for her," Davidson said.
Spears' remains will now be cremated and sent to his mother who now lives in California.