Overview
- A postmortem image located by the Aransas County Medical Examiner in late 2025 was forwarded to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and then to Dallas police.
- Detective Ryan Dalby, working with a Texas Rangers forensic examiner, assessed the image as a likely match to 16-year-old Norman Prater, missing since January 1973.
- Prater’s brother, Isaac, made a positive visual identification, prompting Dallas police to close their longest-running missing-persons investigation.
- No DNA or fingerprint evidence was available, so the resolution relied on photographic comparison tools and family confirmation.
- The July 1973 hit-and-run on Highway 35 near Rockport that caused Prater’s death remains an open, unsolved case.