LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Three years after a Louisville man went missing, authorities in Missouri have identified his body.
Robert Eaton was reported missing in February 2022 from Elizabeth, Indiana, after he was last seen in the area at Caesars Southern Indiana. Family members said Eaton lived in Louisville.
In June 2022, a body was recovered in the Mississippi River near Portageville, Missouri. The New Madrid County Sheriff's Office said the remains were estimated to have been in the river for "a minimum of two to three months" and that there were no signs of trauma noted.
It took investigators three years to identify Eaton through different techniques and testing methods.
"There's a lot of reasons to have hope right now with where technology is," said Dr. Jennifer Bengtson, an anthropologist and professor at Southeast Missouri State.
According to a missing person's report filed with the Harrison County Sheriff's Office in Indiana, a taxi picked Eaton up from his mother's home in Louisville and he was headed toward the casino.
His mother reported him missing a month later.
According to the police report, investigators were told he had a history of mental illness, did not have a cell phone and it wasn't the first time he went missing.
Less than four months later and more than 300 miles away, Eaton's body was pulled from the Mississippi River near Portageville in June 2022, according to the New Madrid County Sheriff's Office.
There was no ID, and investigators couldn't get fingerprints due to the decomposing body.
Bengtson, who was called in to help with the case, and her students helped investigators.
"Because we have worked on previous cases where we were able to get those remains identified, sometimes law enforcement will contact us and so that's what happened in the case," Bengtson said.
Last year, they began building a biological profile using advanced DNA testing.
"The genealogists who worked on the case built a massive family tree," Bengtson said.
New leads in the case were developed and followed up on by investigators. One of those leads led investigators to a potential relative in the genealogy report who had made a post on social media about a missing loved one, "who matched the demographic profile" developed for Eaton.
In April of this year, the relatives were interviewed by investigators and provided "familial reference samples," which were used to confirm Eaton's identity.
"When we do contribute to a resolution, and when we see and talk to and hear about family members who are getting answers they deserve about what happened to their loved one, it makes it all worth it," Bengtson said.
Investigators said it's still unclear how Eaton's body ended up in Missouri. Family members traveled there last week to bring his remains home to Louisville.
"They assured us that they are finally at peace, and they took some comfort in the fact that this case opened the door to new techniques that will change the way we investigate these cases in New Madrid County," New Madrid County Sheriff Joey Higgerson said.
To view Eaton's obituary, click here.
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