Skeletal remains found in trailer identified nearly 2 years later

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Nearly two years after partially mummified human remains were found in an abandoned trailer, the coroner's office has identified the body.

The Franklin County Coroner's Office said on Thursday that the body, found in a trailer on West Moler Street near the Scioto River in May 2022, was of 49-year-old Carl Jennings. The nature of the remains -- the soft tissue mostly gone, missing eyes and mummified arms and legs -- made it impossible at the time to identify the body or determine the cause of death.

Fingerprints were submitted to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation in 2022, but their quality was too poor to be usable, the coroner's office said. In January, Morgue Supervisor Erika Wrigley returned to the remains to try other methods of identification and noticed one finger that could produce identifiable prints.

Wrigley hydrated the finger tissue and submitted prints to the FBI, which identified the prints as matching Jennings.

"We are exceptionally proud of our Morgue Supervisor Erika Wrigley for her dogged
determination over a two-year period to make positive identification," Coroner Dr. Nate Overmire said in a release. "We are pleased to bring a sense of closure for Carl Jennings' family after all this time of being missing."