Remains found almost 50 years ago identified as Vietnam veterans

After nearly 50 years, Arizona detectives finally identified skeletal remains found near Flagstaff in 1975 as those of a Vietnam veteran.

The Coconino County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) announced in a news release on Wednesday, May 8 that detectives used DNA comparison, among other scientific methods, to determine that the remains belonged to Gerald Francis Long, who was originally from Minnesota.

“The Sheriff’s Office offers its deepest condolences to Mr. Long’s family,” the CCSO said in its statement.

The man’s skeletal remains were initially found on April 19, 1975, by area farmers who had been chasing a runaway pig when they stumbled upon the discovery on Meteor City Road, according to the release. A Munsingwear brand jacket was also found next to the remains, leading detectives to nickname the deceased “Munsingwear Doe.”

Since the discovery, detectives and cold case volunteers have attempted to identify “Munsingwear Doe” with little success, and ultimately it took nearly five decades before a breakthrough was possible.

In August 2023, CCSO and Intermountain Forensics in Salt Lake City used the forensic genetic genealogy process, a process that emerged in 2018, in which a deceased person’s DNA is compared to others in genealogical databases. Through this process, they were able to “identify a family line,” and in February, they identified Long as a “potential match.”

From there, detectives contacted a family member of the line, who shared Long’s story. They noted that he was a “U.S. Army veteran” who enlisted in January 1969 and was deployed to Vietnam that year.

Further interviews with family members revealed that Long returned home to Minnesota in February 1972 and was discharged from the Army a month later. She then told his family that he was “leaving Minnesota and heading to the West Coast” and was never heard from again.

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CCSO said the FBI Laboratory’s Latent Print Unit took partial fingerprints from the skeletal remains and was able to positively compare them to fingerprint records taken from the former veteran. To further ensure that the remains belonged to Long, detectives took a DNA sample from the family and, through a “DNA comparison,” were able to confirm the skeleton’s identity once again.

While detectives were able to determine the identity of the skeletal remains, they also noted they were unable to determine Long’s cause of death.

CCSO noted that in light of the positive identification, Long’s family has “requested privacy.”