Remarkably, after 56 long years, DNA technology has finally unveiled the identity of a man found decapitated and without hands on a desolate road in New York’s Allegany County, as authorities revealed this week.
However, the individual responsible for his demise remains elusive.
The remains of Clyde A. Coppage, aged 35, were discovered in March 1970, abandoned by a rural roadside in Andover, New York.
“For nearly 56 years, the New York State Police diligently pursued every possible lead, yet the man’s identity remained a mystery,” the police stated in a Thursday press release.
Originally from Pennsylvania, Coppage was never registered as missing.
At the time of discovery, he was found without clothing or any identifiable belongings, according to Trooper James O’Callaghan, as reported by the Albany Times Union on Friday.
O’Callaghan said the evidence suggested Coppage was killed and dismembered somewhere else before his body was left on the rural Davis Hill Road in Andover.
In June 2022, his body was exhumed for a DNA profile, and, with the help of the FBI, he was finally identified.
State police said the Bureau of Criminal Investigation out of NYSP Amity is asking for the public’s help for any information about Coppage or his killer.
The investigation into his death remains active, police said.
