Medical officials have confirmed the identity of a deceased "John Doe" as missing teenager Cengiz Nuray, almost 20 years after his body was found floating in the water off a California beach.
Officials labeled the body as "John Doe" when it was found decomposed off Asilomar Beach in Pacific Grove in 1995, the Los Angeles Times reported.
That was the same year Nuray, 17, disappeared from Greyhound Rock Beach during an outing with friends, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
On April 27, 1995, the Santa Barbara teenager and his friends were at the beach following the touring rock band Grateful Dead when Nuray told them he was going for a walk, according to The Californian. He left his belongings and never returned.
The body was found 35 miles away from Greyhound Rock Beach and was nowhere near being identified until last December when the Monterey County coroner and Pacific Grove investigators sent John Doe's DNA to the state Department of Justice.
The department ran the DNA against the FBI's DNA index system, CODIS, and a match was found in late December, The Californian reported. A cause of death or reason for Nuray's disappearance was not immediately clear.
When Nuray first disappeared, police classified him as "an endangered runaway," according to the Monterey Herald.
But now, "after almost 20 years, the family will finally have closure and 'John Doe' will be laid to rest," Pacific Grove police said.
