DNA test leads family to missing teenager found dead in N.Y.C.
By Ryan Hutchins/The Star-Ledger
Posted Jul 16, 2009
Ben Maurer, a missing Piscataway teen, who was found dead in New York City, one day after he disappeared. For seven years, his family searched for him, until DNA confirmed his identity.
PISCATAWAY -- On a June evening in 2002, 17-year-old Ben Maurer visited his girlfriend's house, then headed to a pool hall in Dunellen, several miles from his home in Piscataway.
He stayed until midnight. That much his family knows. That much police have verified. He was a missing 17-year-old from Piscataway -- one who made headlines after his disappearance, but whose case quickly fell from public view.
Quietly, his family and friends kept up their search for years. His mother, Germaine Maurer, made a MySpace page and his 25-year-old brother, Jared Maurer, created a Facebook group to both remember Ben and keep the search alive.
They ran announcements on the local cable access channel and tacked up posters in municipal hall.
Ben went missing on June 25, 2002. That night, he visited his girlfriend's house from 8 to 10 p.m. The girl's mother offered to drive him home, but he declined, and said he would walk. He didn't call home that night. Or the next day. He failed to show up for work at his father's painting business.
As days and weeks passed without word, as grim thoughts set in, family members and friends hoped he was off exploring somewhere. He had always been an adventurous kid, eager to see new places. Perhaps he was traveling cross-country, like some teenage Jack Kerouac.
Seven years later, Ben Maurer has been found. He died June 26, 2002, one day after his disappearance, in New York City. Apparently without ID, he was buried six weeks later in a potter's field on New York's Hart Island, the repository for more than a half-million of the city's unidentified or impoverished dead.
Family members declined to comment yesterday, but in a Star-Ledger obituary and on a variety of websites -- including Facebook and YouTube -- they said Maurer's identity had been confirmed through DNA testing last month. A cause of death was not released.
Maurer's remains have been returned to Piscataway, and on Saturday, his family will give him a proper burial, providing a small measure of solace for those who came to fear the worst.
"I thought maybe he's going to come back. Then more time went by, and the seriousness of it really set in," said Jimmy Lesnefsky, 22, a friend. "He was dead for seven years before anyone even knew. That's tragic. At least now we know."
Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner's office, said she did not have enough information to comment on Maurer's case. In general, Borakove said, the office is willing to work with families whose missing relatives may have been buried on Hart Island.
It remains unclear how Maurer made his way from Dunellen to New York. His final moments are just as murky.
Maurer, who would have been a junior at Piscataway High School in the fall, last saw his family before leaving for his girlfriend's house that day. He arrived around 8 p.m. and left on foot two hours later, declining an offer of a ride from his girlfriend's mother, family members and police told The Star-Ledger seven years ago.
A short time later, he was seen at Eight on the Break, the pool hall in Dunellen. Witnesses told police he left at midnight. Then nothing.
As months and then years passed, family members and friends quietly kept up the search, tacking up missing person posters in municipal halls, running announcements on local-access cable channels, circulating his photo on the internet.
His mother, Germaine, created a MySpace page. A brother, Jared, now 25, started a Facebook group to both remember Maurer and to keep the search alive. Two years ago, there had been another DNA test on a different body, according to posts Jared Maurer made on the Facebook page.
"Off to New York sometime this week to give DNA testing in Manhattan," wrote the brother, "as it appears there was a body found that so closely resembles Ben detectives called us up wanting us to travel and find out for sure ... pray (for what i dunno anymore)."
A month later, on July 4, the brother wrote the result was negative.
That Maurer's body was found at all is rather remarkable. About 50 people are buried every week on the island, according to the city's Department of Corrections, which runs the graveyard. It's the final resting place for between 500,000 and 800,000 people. Disinterments are rare, with around 100 performed each year, according to the agency.
On the MySpace page, Germaine Maurer told the world a little about her son. She said he wrote about himself for a school project, describing himself as honest, clever, silly and impatient. He said he feared death and loved autumn nights, roast beef and music.
Family members wrote in his obituary that he was active in soccer, scouting, basketball, the school radio station and the drama club. His funeral will take place at noon Saturday at St. Frances Cabrini Church in Piscataway.
https://www.nj.com/news/2009/07/dna_test_leads_family_to_missi.html
