State police identify homicide victim from 1973
ZILWAUKEE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Investigators have identified a victim who was murdered in March of 1973 with the help of forensic genetic genealogy, Michigan State Police announced Thursday.
The Michigan State Police Third District Cold Case Team identified the man after an FBI DNA database confirmed the victim as Daniel C. Garza-Gonzales, from Texas, born on March 15, 1944.
According to MSP, Gonzales was a Vietnam War Veteran who, after serving, left Fort Worth, Texas, at the age of 29 to look for work in Flint, Michigan.
After he left Texas, his parents never heard from him again.
Knowing the victim's identity even 50 years later is important because it may help lead investigators to who was responsible for Gonzales' death.
His family will reinter his remains in Texas.
Background Information:
Police received reports of a body floating in the Saginaw River, near M-13, in Zilwaukee Township on March 13, 1973.
Autopsy results revealed the victim had been shot seven times and has blunt force trauma to the back of his head. The medical examiner believed he had been knocked down, shot and then discarded into the Saginaw River, before his body was discovered six weeks later.
Police were not able to identify the man because there was no identification present, and they were unable to identify him through fingerprints.
The case was reexamined in 2020 and the body was exhumed for advanced DNA testing.
In collaboration with the Doe Project, the cold case team were sent previously obtained hair samples and a new bone same in 2021.
In 2022, a possible familial match was located and DNA reference samples were obtained from family members in Beeville, Texas.
The victim was then confirmed by the FBI as Daniel C. Garza-Gonzales in December 2022.
