The remains of a United Kingdom man missing for nearly two-and-a-half years have been found in a privately owned wooded area near Kingsland, Georgia, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.
Alex Hodgson Doughty was reported missing in September 2022 and had been visiting Jacksonville, Florida, about 35 miles south of where the remains were found, the FBI said in announcing the discovery on Friday.
The cause and manner of death were unavailable.
An FBI Evidence Response Team based in Jacksonville led the search when the remains were found on Feb. 4, the bureau said in its statement. It said the Medical Examiner’s Office of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed the remains as belonging to Doughty.
The U.K. nonprofit LBT Global, which helps families with relatives who are victims of crimes overseas, said on a web page dedicated to Doughty that he paid for a ride to Kingsland on one of the last days he was seen, on Sept. 11, 2022, when he was 30. The FBI listed Doughty’s age as 32.
He was at a Jacksonville bar and grill that Sunday afternoon when he took the ride, LBT Global said. Within an hour, it said, he was in Kingsland, a small city on the state’s southwest coast, about three miles north of the Florida border, that touts itself as a destination for outdoor adventure.
A Facebook page, Help Find Alex, said he had been staying in Orlando when he went 140 miles north to Jacksonville and then north again to Kingsland, the latter via a ride-hailing service.
The National Institute of Justice’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) page for Doughty said he was last seen at 1 a.m. on Sept. 12 in the parking lot of an auto parts store. It also said he had been traveling by via ride-hailing service.
The FBI didn’t provide details on the discovery, stating only that a criminal case was not forthcoming. “No criminal charges are expected,” it said.
The bureau indicated that FBI investigators who specialize in tracking cellphone locations, part of the Jacksonville FBI office’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team, helped locate the remains.
Speaking in the Friday statement, the FBI’s special agent in charge of the Jacksonville office, Kristin Rehler, praised the survey team’s members for being “relentless in their efforts to narrow down potential search locations.”
“While we had hoped to bring Mr. Doughty’s family better news, we are thankful to be able to provide them with some closure,” she said.
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