ADRIAN, MICH. On Feb. 12, 1979, 15-year-old Andrew Jackson Greer left Addison High School and failed to return home. Greer’s whereabouts have been unknown for the past 39 plus years. The case remained cold after early investigations by the Michigan State Police in 1979 and the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Department in 2000. The cold case was re-opened in 2014 and with developments in technology and resources, the mystery of Andrew’s whereabouts has finally been solved.
A forensic analyst from the Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas today confirmed that DNA from a “John Doe,” who was buried in a pauper’s grave in Macon, Ga. in 1979, matches Greer’s DNA.
In December 2017, a retired Bibb County Sheriff’s Department deputy made the connection between the “John Doe” and Greer. The retired deputy notified MSP detectives, who then traveled to Macon, Ga. in April 2018 to exhume the body of “John Doe.” With the assistance of the Bibb County Sheriff’s Department, Macon District Attorney’s Office and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, detectives were able to successfully recover the body to send for additional testing.
A DNA sample was taken from “John Doe” at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and sent to the Center for Human Identification for comparison. The results concluded that it was 1.9 trillion times more likely that the DNA from “John Doe” was that of Greer than not. Together, the DNA results and police reports conclude they are one in the same.
All indications are that Greer ran away from home on Feb. 12, 1979, and was killed when he was struck by a semi-truck while hitchhiking down I-75 near Macon, Ga. on Feb. 14, 1979. Greer’s identity has been a mystery to Georgia authorities until now, and the Michigan State Police had no information on his whereabouts until the connection was made in December 2017.
Arrangements are currently being made to bring Greer’s body back to Michigan.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
D/F/Lt. Thomas DeClercq, MSP First District Special Investigation Section, 517-636-0703
Greer’s NamUs profile: https://www.namus.gov/