Internet Sherlocks help solve 20-year-old 'Grateful Doe' case
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The Internet can be the place for selfies, food pictures and just general time wasters.
But it can also yield results that can bring a mystery to an end and some closure to a family whose son has been missing for 20 years.
A man who was killed in 1995 has finally been identified thanks to social media, WMBF reported.
Jason Callahan was reported missing from Myrtle Beach in 1995.
But no one realized that he was the man behind the unidentified remains called "Grateful Doe."
Doe could not be identified because of his extensive injuries, the Virginia Medical Examiner's office said.
"Grateful Doe" was first identified as Callahan a year ago on Reddit and Facebook, but officials with the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System just confirmed his identity this week, The Washington Post reported.
UPDATE: THE NEWS WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!!!! The dna results are back that our Greatful doe is infact Jason Callahan...
Posted by Grateful Doe on Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Callahan was from South Carolina and had been hitch-hiking along the East Coast after a Grateful Dead tour.
The car in which he got a ride was part of a deadly accident in Emporia, Virginia. The car's driver was immediately identified but Callahan's injuries were so bad that officials couldn't describe or sketch him accurately, The Washington Post reported.
He also didn't match any missing persons reports.
More than half a million people saw posts on Reddit and other online communities. In January, two men said they knew him. After a push from local media, Callahan's mother filed a missing persons report to allow police to open an investigation. Eleven months later, after DNA tests were ordered, officials confirmed "Grateful Doe" was Callahan, The Washington Post reported.
