Overview

• Investigators uncovered skeletal remains in November 1992 off Route 95 South in Newburyport that were autopsied as a teenage boy but left unidentified.
• Othram’s private lab in Texas extracted degraded DNA and used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to match the remains to Rea’s relatives.
• Rea vanished at age 14 from the Harbor School in Newbury in August 1988 and spent part of his childhood in Malden.
• State Police, the Essex District Attorney’s Office and Newburyport Police pursued leads for over 30 years until this genetic breakthrough.
• Authorities have opened a public tip line at 855-MA-SOLVE to gather information that could explain the circumstances of Rea’s death.