For 35 years, the skeletal remains pulled from a shallow grave in a wooded corner of Quincy had no name. Now they do. Massachusetts State Police have identified the remains, discovered near 270 Quarry Street on March 21, 1991, as Glenn Powers, a 1970 graduate of Randolph High School, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has ruled his death a homicide caused by blunt-force trauma.
The identification, announced by Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey, closes one of the region's longest-running identity mysteries even as the question of who killed Powers remains unanswered. According to Boston 25 News, a civilian walking through the wooded area near 270 Quarry Street stumbled on the grave back in 1991, in a stretch of Quincy that has since been developed, according to Fall River Reporter.
Morrissey said his office and its local police partners deliberately avoid the term “cold case” when describing files like Powers'. “Every victim deserves justice,” he said, adding that his office is committed to bringing some measure of closure to victims' families, per the Fall River Reporter's account of his remarks.
How Investigators Finally Put a Name to the Bones
Cracking the case required forensic genetic genealogy, a technique that pairs advanced DNA sequencing with traditional family-tree research. The Norfolk District Attorney's Office said Ramapo College of New Jersey's Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center handled the genealogical work, while the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab and BODE Technology conducted the DNA analysis, the Fall River Reporter reported.
A Massachusetts State Police Unresolved Unit trooper led the investigation, working alongside the Norfolk District Attorney's Office and Quincy Police Detective Jim Menz, the same outlet's report notes. The method has become a powerful tool nationally: forensic-grade genome sequencing can scan more than a million DNA markers, a vast leap from the couple dozen typically analyzed in older short tandem repeat testing, according to NBC Boston.
Part of a Broader Wave of Massachusetts Identifications
Powers' case fits a pattern playing out across the state as genetic genealogy reopens decades-old mysteries. NBC Boston's reporting on the technology notes that Keith Olson, whose remains were found in Fairhaven in 1985, was identified nearly four decades later through the same kind of forensic DNA work. Ruth Marie Terry, once the longest-unidentified homicide victim in Massachusetts, was named as the victim of a 1974 Cape Cod killing after nearly five decades without an identity, the station reports, and Patricia Ann Tucker — long known only as the “Granby Girl” — was identified after her remains were found in western Massachusetts in 1978.
A similar effort is underway in Burlington, where an unidentified homicide victim was found buried in a shallow grave on May 22, 1975, and remained unnamed 50 years later, according to MassLive. That victim suffered fatal head wounds, and the Chief Medical Examiner's Office ruled his death a homicide; in 2023, investigators obtained a warrant to exhume his remains and collect DNA from his bones and teeth for genetic genealogy analysis, which indicated he was likely of Southern European descent, per MassLive's reporting.
Despite its promise, the technique has drawn scrutiny. NBC Boston notes that forensic genealogy has raised concerns around human error, privacy, wrongful accusations and racial disparities as law enforcement agencies increasingly rely on it to crack cases that sat dormant for generations.
Search for Powers' Killer Continues
With Powers now identified, the Norfolk District Attorney's Office says authorities are searching for the person or people responsible for his death. Anyone with information has been asked to contact the Norfolk District Attorney's Office MSP tip line at 781-830-4990, Quincy Police at 617-745-5768, or the Massachusetts State Police Unresolved Case Unit at 1-855-MA-SOLVE (1-855-627-6583), according to the Fall River Reporter's report.
This remains a developing story, and Boston 25 News has indicated updates are expected as more information becomes available.
