World enews: Teen hitchhiker who drowned in 1961 car accident identified after half a century

A teenage hitchhiker who was killed in an Alabama road accident in 1961 has been identified thanks to advanced DNA analysis half a century later.

The “unknown boy”, as he became known in the aftermath of the crash, was the subject of a weeks-long investigation that failed to identify him.

Thanks to advanced DNA analysis, he was recently identified as 15-year-old Daniel Paul Armantrout by Bibb County coroner CW West, and Identifiers International, a DNA analysis firm.

Don Hamilton, his older brother, told The New York Times that Danny had runway from his parent’s home shortly before the crash in March 1961 because of an alcoholic father and abuse.

Mr Hamilton himself waited until the age of 17 to join the US Army, and eventually married and had children, and grandchildren. The parents of Mr Hamilton and Danny are no longer alive.

Mr West phoned Mr Hamilton last week to inform him about the finding of Danny, which caused both men to cry, The Times reported. A memorial service is scheduled.

Danny, who was hitchhiking, drowned after the vehicle’s driver accidentally crashed into the Cahaba River, an FBI report found at the time.

The driver survived but Danny did not, and was afterwards buried nearby, in Bibb County.

Alabama officials had exhumed the body of Danny in 2016 and shared DNA samples with a national database that is maintained by the FBI, the Combined DNA Index System.

Mr West, the coroner for Bibb County, only started looking at “the unknown boy” after contact from Identifinders International, a DNA analysis firm, at the beginning of this year.

DNA analysis has become more advanced since 1961 and 2016, allowing Danny’s identity and that of many victims to be found decades after crimes and accidents took place.