DNA Testing Reveals Fort Bend 'Stubby' Cold Case Victim Was Likely East Asian, Not White as First Believed

A man's remains turned up along FM 359 near Richmond in 1964, so badly incomplete that investigators never learned who he was. His head, hands and feet were never found. For 62 years, he has been known only by the name given to him at the time: Stubby.

Now the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office says new DNA testing has upended what little investigators thought they knew about him and produced the first real leads in decades.

The sheriff's office is working with Moxxy Forensic Investigations, a private genetic genealogy firm, to identify the man through investigative genetic genealogy, a technique that combines DNA analysis with traditional family tree research to locate living relatives of unidentified people. The method compares DNA profiles against public genealogy databases, then works backward through generations of family records, and has been used to solve cold cases in other parts of the country.

Investigators exhumed the man's remains in 2024 specifically to extract DNA suitable for that kind of analysis. He had been buried at San Gabriel Cemetery in Richmond in 1984, two decades after his death, once it became clear no one was going to identify him through conventional means.

At the time of the original investigation, detectives believed the man was white, between 40 and 60 years old, about 6 feet tall and around 175 pounds. His death was ruled a homicide, though the loss of his head, hands and feet meant investigators had almost nothing to work with for identification: no dental records to check, no fingerprints to run.

The new DNA analysis contradicts the original assessment of his race. Researchers say his genetic ancestry is predominantly East Asian. Moxxy Forensic Investigations has also built out family tree connections tied to the surnames Palacat, Auna and Napeahi, names that surfaced through the genealogical research process.

The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office was careful to note that those surnames are research leads, not confirmed identities. Investigators say the man may or may not have used one of those names during his life, and having one of those surnames does not mean someone is connected to the case. The sheriff's office released them to generate tips from people who might recognize a name or recall a relative who vanished around 1964 without explanation.

Investigators are asking anyone who lived in or passed through the Fort Bend County or Houston area in 1964 to think back on whether they knew an adult man who disappeared around that time, lost touch with family, or was never formally reported missing. The sheriff's office said such cases often go unsolved for decades because the disappearance was never connected to a police report, or because the relatives who might have searched for the man have since died or moved away.

Genetic genealogy has become a routine tool for Texas law enforcement agencies working through backlogs of unidentified remains and unsolved homicides, cases that sat for years with DNA samples too degraded or too limited for older forensic methods. Advances in sequencing technology now let labs build usable genetic profiles from smaller or older samples than was possible five or ten years ago, and cross reference them against consumer genealogy databases whose users have opted in to law enforcement searches.

The sheriff's office said the Stubby case shows how DNA evidence can contradict assumptions made from an incomplete set of remains at a crime scene, including the race and age estimates recorded by detectives in 1964.

Detective Eli Cisneros of the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office and Katie Thomas of Moxxy Forensic Investigations are handling tips on the case. Anyone with information is asked to contact Cisneros at Elias.Cisneros2@fortbendcountytx.gov or Thomas at katie@moxxyforensics.com.

No arrest or suspect has been named, and the investigation remains open. The sheriff's office has not said whether additional exhumations or DNA testing are planned, but the genealogical research into the Palacat, Auna and Napeahi family lines is continuing as investigators wait to hear from anyone who might recognize the names or the timeline.