For decades Kevin Alvin Jude Carroll was a nameless young man found dead in Pennsylvania. An 18-year-old from Salem, Oregon, Carroll had just been discharged from the U.S. Air Force at McGuire Air Force Base near Trenton, New Jersey, six days before his body was discovered in Crum Creek on December 13, 1978. Children in a Ridley Township neighborhood found him; he had been shot multiple times and was left without identification.

His family reported him missing and legally declared him dead in 2003. The unidentified victim remained a John Doe until genealogical researchers and the Veteran Doe Network found a potential match. Examinations of blood type, a scar, age, height and hair color led investigators to compare long-stored fingerprints and a crime scene photograph, and the remains were positively identified as Kevin Carroll on March 22, 2022.

If anyone knew Kevin, his movements after discharge, or saw something in Ridley Township in December 1978, please share what’s known.