Marine vet who served in Vietnam is identified as 1980 cold case murder victim whose body was found partially buried along a Florida road

A 'John Doe' who was found 'violently murdered' in a shallow grave in the Florida woods in 1980 has finally been identified as a Marine veteran after decades of mystery. 

The badly decomposed dead body was found in December 1980 in the woods of Pomona Park with a gunshot wound, blunt force trauma to the chest and a fracture on the base of his skull. 

Detectives could not identify the body or identify a suspect and the file was closed with the victim known only as 'John Doe #36' for the next four decades.  

Now, new DNA techniques have enabled Putnam County Sheriff's investigators to identify the victim as father-of-two William Irving Monroe III, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran. 

Sheriff Gator DeLoach said the discovery gave Monroe's family 'the peace to know that we have identified their brother who will be properly memorialized.'

The vet's surviving son, Michael, who was eight when his father disappeared without a trace said it was 'overwhelming... just to know I wasn't abandoned'.

After 40 years of mystery, John Doe #36 was identified as William Irving Monroe III

A sheriff's deputy found the body half-submerged in a shallow grave during a routine patrol in December 1980. 

Detectives ascertained the victim had died from a gunshot wound to the neck about two or three weeks before the body was found. 

He had no identification on him and through interviews, detectives came to believe he was a migrant worker working on a nearby farm. He was buried with a plain metal cross marking his grave and the case went cold.

In February 2023, Capt. Chris Stallings reviewed the evidence and contacted DNA testing center Orthram about the case. 

They used the latest technology to build a DNA profile and searched a genetic database to build a potential family tree. 

This led detectives to his brother, and identified the body as belonging to Monroe. 

Through interviews with his surviving family, they determined that Monroe was living in Orlando at the time and that he may have been in Pomona Park because his ex-wife and two sons were living in the area.

One of his sons, Michael, was only eight when his father disappeared, the other, Chris, died in a car crash in 1994. Michael told WJXX that his father was his 'hero.'

He said: 'I went everywhere with him, so when he was gone, it took a lot out of me," he said. 'I wondered about it my whole life. 

'Just to know he was found and I wasn't abandoned as a kid... it is overwhelming, I don't know how else to say it. It's shocking.'

Putnam County Sheriff Gator DeLoach announced the identification on Friday

DeLoach said that for years after he disappeared, Monroe’s family thought he had possibly been murdered in the Virgin Islands. 

They confirmed that he stopped contacting them in 1980, and they did not know his whereabouts. He was last seen at a convenience store in 1980 and a driver for a labor camp said he had picked someone up matching his description around the same time.

His family said that Monroe had been suffering with PTSD after fighting in Vietnam. 

There are currently no suspects in the case.