VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office announced on Friday that remains recovered in 2007 have been identified as Robert Martin, a diver who went missing off the coast of Ponce Inlet.
In 2006, the U.S. Coast Guard responded to a distress call about 20 miles east of Ponce Inlet. Martin was diving with two associates at a popular diving spot known as the “party grounds” when he became distressed and went underwater, the sheriff’s office said.
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The Coast Guard conducted a large-scale rescue but ultimately did not locate Martin.
In 2007, VSO traced gear a diver had found to a shop that Martin purchased it from. Later that year, a woman walking on the beach in New Smyrna Beach located partial human remains and reported it to law enforcement.
VSO detectives attempted to obtain a DNA match for Martin but were unable to identify or locate any family members.
Eighteen years later, with the help of the Medical Examiner’s Office and funding from the MUHR grant, a program to provide funds for missing persons cases, the case was submitted to Othram, Inc. for DNA sequencing and a database search.
In April, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Genetic Genealogy Team began conducting extensive analytical and genealogy research, VSO said, providing the sheriff’s office with a positive identification of Martin in May.
Martin’s death has been deemed accidental, VSO said, and next of kin has been notified.