A man whose frozen body was discovered in a Pennsylvania cave in 1977 has finally been identified by authorities, almost five decades later.
The Berks County Coroner’s Office revealed that the remains belong to 27-year-old Nicholas Paul Grubb, a resident of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania in the United States.
The man, previously known only as the ‘Pinnacle Man’, was identified after authorities matched Grubb’s fingerprints following years of investigative efforts.
Grubb’s body was originally found frozen in a cave located just below the Pinnacle in Albany Township, a popular hiking spot about 75 miles (122 km) northwest of Philadelphia.
This identification marks the resolution of a nearly 50-year-old mystery, during which multiple attempts to identify the remains were unsuccessful, including a 2019 exhumation to obtain DNA.
An initial autopsy had determined that ‘Pinnacle Man’ died from a drug overdose, with police ruling out any foul play. Despite efforts to match dental records and fingerprints at the time, no matches were found.
It wasn’t until August this year that a Pennsylvania police detective uncovered Grubb’s fingerprints, which were then submitted to NamUs, the national missing persons’ database. The FBI identified Grubb in under an hour.
The coroner’s office acknowledged the “considerable effort” involved in identifying unclaimed bodies, noting that in the past 15 years, Grubb’s remains had been unsuccessfully compared to about 10 missing persons cases, and that even the DNA retrieved from the 2019 exhumation failed to yield a match.
Officials were on the verge of re-burying his remains when they finally identified him.
Grubb, affectionately called “Nicky” by his family, had served in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and received an honorable discharge in 1971.
The coroner’s office reported that his family was “very appreciative” of the diligent efforts made to identify him.
