The identity of a man found frozen to death in a Pennsylvania cave nearly 50 years ago has finally been discovered after police traced long-lost fingerprint evidence, solving a mystery that has long baffled authorities in the Appalachian Mountains.
The Berks County, Pennsylvania, coroner’s office on Tuesday identified the man as Nicholas Paul Grubb, 27, of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, CNN reported.
Grubb was known for many years as “Pinnacle Man,” a reference to the peak in the Appalachian Mountains near where hikers found his body in 1977. At the time, authorities found no suspicious signs and classified his death as a suicide due to a drug overdose.
Grubb’s body could not be identified by appearance, possessions, or clothing, and during his autopsy, medical examiners took dental information and fingerprints, but the fingerprints were lost, leaving investigators with a rough sketch and little else.
Authorities periodically reexamined the case whenever promising evidence emerged, but Grubb’s identity remained a mystery. “Over the past 15 years, state police detectives and coroner’s office investigators have matched Nicholas’ information, through fingerprints and dental x-rays, to more than 10 missing persons,” Berks County Coroner John Fielding told reporters last week, according to WGAL.
Dental records linked Grubb to two missing people from Illinois and Florida, and his body was exhumed in 2019, WFMZ reported.
Forensic investigators carried out tests and took a DNA sample to update his information on the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), but the data did not match any of the missing people, CNN reported.
In August 2024, Pennsylvania State Police trooper Ian Keck found Grubb’s lost fingerprint card, taken during his 1977 autopsy, and sent it to NAMUAS. According to the New York Times, an FBI fingerprint expert matched the print to Grubb’s in just 53 minutes.
“It took quite a bit of work going through the archives. Fortunately, as we were going through the archives, we found the fingerprint card along with the photograph,” Keck said at a news conference.
“It’s bittersweet,” Keck continued, “Families have been searching for their loved ones for over 40 years and never know what happened. I’m glad I was able to play this small role and help out.”
Authorities told reporters that Grubb had been a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in the early 1970s. He had “contact with law enforcement” in Colorado two years before his death, and that contact resulted in his fingerprints being stored in an automated fingerprint identification system, the Times reported.
The Berks County coroner’s office has confirmed Grubb’s identity to a relative, who has asked the coroner’s office to allow Grubb’s body to be buried in the family graveyard.
“This identification brings long-awaited resolution to the families, who have been notified and have expressed their deep gratitude for the collaborative effort that made this possible. It is moments like these that remind us of the importance of our work to provide answers, closure and give names and stories to the unidentified,” Fielding was quoted as saying.
According to reports, Grubb was lightly dressed and had no camping gear or food when he was found, and there were signs he had attempted to start a fire, suggesting he was not prepared for the snowy conditions. Authorities said they would continue to investigate Grubb’s cause of death until a final determination is made, WGAL reported.
