How Bensalem cops and genetic investigators identified a man who drowned 20 years ago

Chris McMullin was long disturbed by the name “John Doe” on a grave in Doylestown Cemetery.

A former Bensalem Township Police detective and cold-case investigator, McMullin, 54, remembered when the body of a man estimated to be about 30 years old was found Oct. 19, 2003, by fishermen in a drainage area on the banks of the Delaware River in Bensalem Township. The cause of death was determined to be drowning; foul play had been ruled out.

The unidentified body was subsequently buried beneath a marker bearing a placeholder name.

Years went by, DNA science developed, and McMullin, who lives in Buckingham, became preoccupied with finding a modern way to solve open-ended cases. In 2022, he founded Cold Case Initiative, a nonprofit that helps fund such investigations, which can be expensive. Working with Bensalem police and a Virginia-based group called Innovative Forensic Investigations (IFI), McMullin helped make a breakthrough:

Edward Anthony Nece, whose father, Edward Nece, lives in Riverside Township, Burlington County, has been identified as the drowning victim, police announced Monday.

“This one is our first solve,” McMullin said Tuesday. “We’re so excited.”

“We were able to finally put a name to a person,” said Tom McAndrew, chief of investigations for IFI and a retired Pennsylvania state trooper who was stationed in the Poconos, where he also obsessed over cold cases. McMullin said McAndrew helped him dream up the Cold Case Initiative.

“To be in an unmarked grave is sad.” McAndrew added. “Everybody deserves their name.”

Edward Nece, the victim’s father, said in an interview Tuesday night that he learned from Bensalem police that his son’s body had been identified in October.

Nece, 75, a retired diesel mechanic, said that these days, he’s still feeling “foggy, a little confused” about it all. “I waited 20 years for word about my son,” he said.

He and his former wife would go to police stations to file missing person’s reports, and to check in to learn whether officers had picked up any clues. “This was before cell phone days when you could maybe find someone,” he said.

Nece added that the spot in the Delaware where his son was found wasn’t far from Nece’s home.

“I just found it extremely hard to believe someone could go missing less than a mile from your house and it takes two decades to find out,” he said.

“I don’t know what to say. I’ve felt relief but sadness. But then, I get to have closure. He was buried properly.

“His mother and I have been up to the cemetery, and we changed that nameplate from an unknown to his name. We’re now in the process of putting up a gravestone.”

Nece said his son, who was 31 when his body was discovered, had worked as a forklift operator at a trucking firm in Delanco. “He was really happy, making real good money. Things were going well for him.”

When Nece’s body was found, his description didn’t match any reports of missing persons in the area, police said. They obtained partial fingerprints, but they didn’t match any known fingerprints in the national database.

Bensalem Police compared the unknown male with numerous missing person reports over the next 19 years without success.

During that time, as Edward Nece lived his life always wondering where his son was, the process known as investigative genetic genealogy grew more sophisticated.

McMullin, who’d always remembered the case, said he’d checked with Bensalem detectives as well as the Bucks County Coroner’s office to see whether it had saved DNA samples. “Around December of 2022, they told me they had hair, which meant we didn’t have to get a court order and exhume the body, which is expensive,” he said.

The hair was sent to a lab where a DNA profile was obtained. Cold Case Initiative then funded a year-long genealogy investigation by McAndrew and IFI to search genealogy databases. It cost “in the $10,000 range,” an amount amassed by fundraising, McMullin said.

The report McAndrew generated turned up enough genealogical clues to lead investigators to speak with Edward Nece. On Oct. 19, 2023, exactly 20 years after the body was discovered, Nece told investigators that his son hadn’t been heard from in 20 years.

Nece provided blood for a DNA sample that was then compared with the DNA recovered from the then-unknown male. The DNA match confirmed that it was Edward Anthony Nece.

Detective Sgt. Glenn Vandegrift, public information officer for the Bensalem Township Police Department, gave credit for the “diligent” efforts of department detectives and the Cold Case Initiative partnership.

“Without their assistance,” he said, “the family of Edward Anthony Nece would still be wondering what happened to their loved one.”

McMullin said the outcome “feels great. It’s exactly why we founded CCI. I hope we can do more for other cold cases.”

Edward Nece said he hoped so, too. “When we were looking for our son, we heard about so many people who go missing. You can’t believe the number.

“At least we found out.”

Staff writer Ryan Briggs contributed to this article.

This story has been updated to include comments from Edward Nece.