Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Teams with Othram to Identify 1976 Homicide Victim

Summary

In October 1976 the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office recovered the unidentified skeletal remains of a male subject in a western, rural region of Palm Beach County off of State Highway #827 near the Talisman Farm cane field. Investigators determined the victim had been shot and killed, but there were few clues at the crime scene to point to the homicide victim's identity.

Over the years, the homicide victim remained unidentified and became part of the Nameless Unidentified Human Remains Case Files. The case was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) as UP1330. In 2022, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office sent skeletal remains for the unidentified homicide victim to Othram. Othram scientists developed a suitable DNA extract from the skeletal remains and used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to build a comprehensive DNA profile. Othram's in-house genealogy team used the profile in a genealogical search to produce investigative leads.

The investigative leads were returned to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and a follow up investigation determined that the 1976 homicide victim was in fact Douglas Streeter of Bryan, Ohio. Streeter traveled to Florida with a group of friends from Ohio in March of 1976 and was last seen in the area of the Spanish Oaks Apartments in Boca Raton, Florida. He never returned home and his whereabouts remained unknown until now. Streeter also had ties to North Adams, Michigan and was also known by the nickname of "Strut".

Anyone with information on the murder of Douglas Streeter is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-458-8477 or Detective John Cogburn of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit at 561-688-4063 or email: cogburnj@pbso.org.