A cold case from 1995 has finally been solved in Hillsborough County, thanks to the perseverance of detectives and advancements in forensic genealogy. In a cold tent by Bearss Avenue and I-275 over two decades ago, a man's body was found, his identity a mystery until now. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit, collaborating with Othram Labs, has identified the remains as those of Christopher "Charlie" Mammana, as stated in a press release on the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office website.
After a silence stretching nearly thirty years, Christopher Mammana was only confirmed as the deceased thanks to recent DNA testing. Advanced decomposition had thwarted efforts to determine the circumstances surrounding the man's passing until the case was revisited in May 2023. Discovered in the early stages of using the internet, having a digital footprint that disappeared in 1993, Mammana's past had slipped through the annals of history, eluding detectives for years.
The breakthrough came when Othram Labs provided investigative leads in April, suggesting a possible identity for the long-deceased man. Sheriff Chad Chronister, heralding the detectives' work, mentioned on the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office website that “Advances in technology have allowed detectives to decode what was previously thought to be unsolvable cold cases.” The effort revealed that Mammana, born in 1918, had moved to Florida in the '90s following his wife Connie's death. When a headstone at Easton Cemetery in Pennsylvania was found bearing Mammana's name but without his remains beneath, the Unit’s investigation gained traction.
Investigators tracked contacts and constructed a family tree, eventually locating two nieces of the deceased who provided voluntary DNA samples. With a state grant funding the testing, the tangle of Mammana's fate was finally unraveled, the pieces falling into place. Confirmed on August 23, Sheriff Chronister expressed the significance of the resolution in a statement obtained by Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office: "To be able to identify someone that died nearly 30 years ago speaks to the commitment of our Cold Case Unit."
