FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The body of a man shot in the head in Georgia and left on a remote dirt road between Forsyth and Gray 33 years ago has been identified as a missing Florida man.
A DNA analysis of the man's remains, completed earlier this year, matched that of William Maholland, who was reported missing from Fort Lauderdale in June 1984, authorities announced Thursday.
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Maholland, who was 28, is thought to have been killed a month earlier and dumped in Jones County, nearly 600 miles north of his hometown. A fisherman found the body in the Oconee National Forest.
Investigators suspected that the man was from out of town because of his Bermuda shorts and a belt with swordfish on it. Authorities estimated that he had been dead about a week.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation exhumed Maholland's body in 2006 and collected DNA samples. A forensic analyst at the University of North Texas compared the DNA with that of Maholland's mother and determined that they were a match.
Maholland's death remains an open homicide investigation.