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Clearwater cold case: Body identified 31 years after being found floating near Clearwater Pass bridge

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Published  June 2, 2025 10:12pm EDT
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FOX 13 News
Missing man identified decades later

Missing man identified decades later

Genevieve Curtis reports.

The Brief

    • A body found floating in Clearwater 31 years ago has been identified.
    • More than three decades later, police worked with the medical examiner's office and Moxxy Forensic Investigations to identify Edman Eric Gleed.
    • Gleed’s son, who is now 94, had reported his father missing from Fairfax County, Va.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Clearwater police say they now know the identity of a man who was found dead in 1993 near the Clearwater Pass bridge.

‘Pinellas County John Doe 1993’

What we know:

On Nov. 29, 1993, a man’s body was found floating in the water near the east side of the bridge leading to Sand Key.

Police said a neatly folded pile of clothing was found on the shoreline near a lifeguard stand on Clearwater Beach, but there was no identification among the clothing or on the body.

An autopsy was inconclusive in the manner and cause of death, but foul play was not suspected. The medical examiner's office said the victim was a white male between the ages of 60 and 80, 5 feet 4 inches tall and 118 pounds, with short gray hair and blue eyes.

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Dig deeper:

Thousands of miles away and 30 years later, Kaycee Connelly in Illinois was searching a national database for missing and unidentified persons when one image caught her attention.

"There was just something about the photo," Connelly said. "You know, I knew that somebody was missing him."

Connelly is the co-founder of Moxxy Forensic Investigations, a non-profit made up of volunteers who use genetic genealogy to help law enforcement solve cold cases. Last June, she reached out to the Clearwater Police Department, offering to help.

Courtesy: Clearwater Police Department

Courtesy: Clearwater Police Department

Solving the cold case

Timeline:

Additional samples of the victim's DNA were submitted for testing in concert with investigative genetic genealogy.

Police say that several months of genealogical analysis by nine genealogists developed various connections between the unidentified man and a couple from the mid-18th century who were living in Bristol, England. 

Eventually, the team developed a candidate for the identity of the man. The next of kin, a son of the candidate, was contacted, and a buccal swab was collected for comparative purposes. This swab was compared to the profile of the unidentified man, which determined that the relationship between the two was that of a parent-child relationship and the man was identified as Edman Eric Gleed.

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Gleed was 84 years old when he died. His son, who is now 94, had reported him missing in Fairfax County, Virginia.

On Monday morning, Clearwater police detectives spoke with the man's son, who now lives in North Carolina.

"It was heart-wrenching to speak with him and just hear the emotion," Connelly recalled. "Even though it was so long ago, that emotion is still so raw. For 31 years, Edman Gleed’s son had wondered what had happened to his father. Was he hungry? Was he safe? Was someone caring for him?"

Big picture view:

Connelly learned Gleed was a hat manufacturer by trade and a devoted father and grandfather. He may have been in the early stages of dementia when he left his Fairfax home and disappeared in 1993.

They never imagined that his body had been found just two days after he went missing — more than 1,000 miles away — in Florida.

"We’re never going to know how he got to Florida or why he decided to go for a swim," said one investigator. "But, we know he was loved. We know someone was looking for him."

What they're saying:

"Almost immediately, we observed that all of the DNA matches were either living in or recent immigrants from England, which was quite unexpected for a person found in Pinellas County, Florida," said Connelly. "Our team of volunteer genealogists uncovered numerous ancestors from various parts of England, stretching back to the mid-1700s, to connect the DNA matches with one another. Because of recent immigration and the estimated age range of the man at the time of his death, we were looking for very distant connections."

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"We are happy that we are able to provide the family some answers and some closure as to what happened with their loved one," said Michael Walek, deputy chief for Clearwater Police. "And we're grateful to the medical examiner's office and Moxxy Forensic Investigations for helping us get those answers."

"This case has been close to the hearts of everyone on the team," said Ed Adams, the Moxxy team assistant for the case. "We are all honored to have played a part in returning Edman Gleed to his family."

The Source: This story was written with information provided by the Clearwater Police Department. 

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