GREENVILLE, N.Y. (NEWS10) — State Police have identified the remains found at the bottom of a swamp that was drained in Greenville back in 1991. The remains were found to be 76-year-old Mikolai Celesz, a man reported missing on October 1, 1976.
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Responding agencies had found a skull and other skeletal remains within a seven-foot radius of each other in the drained swamp. Law enforcement reported that several personal effects were with the human remains that pointed to the possibility of the victim having gone missing in the 1970s.
Over the years, law enforcement agencies conducted an investigation into the discovery of the remains but all that could be determined was that the victim had genetic roots in eastern Europe. However, in 2024 the FBI examined the property recovered from the victim and found that the remains may belong to someone from Port Jervis.
State Police initiated interviews and further investigation following the discovery of this possible lead and found the missing persons report filed with the Port Jervis Police Department dating back to October 1, 1976. From there, troopers gathered research and intelligence on the reported missing person, Mikolai Celesz, and eventually conclusively identified the remains as his…