The University of Utah announced that remains found last year have been identified as a college student who went missing more than 50 years ago.

Skull fragments found near the summit of Black Mountain in 2024 were a 99.9 percent genetic match to a living relative of Douglas Brick, who went missing in 1973, the university announced in a press release on Tuesday.

The Context

Brick, who was 23 when he disappeared, was last seen leaving his dorm room on October 12, 1973. He was in his fourth year at the University of Utah, where he studied physics.

What To Know

University Police Major Heather Sturzenegger decided to reopen Brick’s case in 2022.

“For me, I just wanted to try to bring closure to the family and solve the case so they can have some peace,” Sturzenegger said in a statement. “I have always had a really strong feeling that we would be able to solve this case.”

She began looking into the case with University Police Detective Jon Dial. They had very little information and no records of anyone who knew him. They did not know who his roommate was, who reported him missing or where police searched for him.

There were claims that Brick had dropped out of school and moved to Ogden, Utah, that he fled the country or that he had disappeared in the foothills behind the university.

They discovered that Brick’s sister had called University Police in 2018 to inquire about the case.

Dial met the sister in California and collected her DNA through a cheek swab. The DNA was then entered into a national database, but there were no matches.

In December 2022, Sturzenegger was at a doctor’s appointment with her daughter at the office of Dr. Steve Warren. She told Warren about her work and the case she was investigating. Warren then revealed that he went to the University of Utah in 1973 and his roommate went missing.

Warren was the person who reported Brick’s disappearance. Warren told Sturzenegger where police had been searching for Brick.

“It was a huge breakthrough, found completely by coincidence,” the university said.

Hunters found the skull fragments in October of last year. Sturzenegger noticed that the remains were found near the search area.

Police received permission to send the remains to a lab specializing in extracting DNA from weathered bones. Five months later, the results confirmed that the remains belonged to Brick.

Brick’s family thanked the hunter who found and reported the remains, as well as Sturzenegger, Dial and all the people and agencies who were involved in the case.

“We are requesting privacy during this time of transition,” the family said.

What People Are Saying

Douglas Brick’s family, in a statement: “We never stopped hoping for answers about Doug’s disappearance. Many years ago, we pushed for the cold case to be reopened with the addition of DNA evidence. We are relieved to finally have some answers.”

University of Utah Police Major Heather Sturzenegger: “When I got the report, I lost my breath. My heart was pounding. I was shaking. I was thinking, am I reading this right? Is this him?”

University Police Detective Jon Dial, in a statement: “I felt a very personal connection to Douglas throughout this investigation. In a way, it’s hard to explain. There was a push and a connection that I felt was from Douglas to this case specifically, in moving it along and being persistent. I have felt very strongly that I will always have Douglas in the back of my mind, and his family.”

Dr. Steve Warren, in a statement: “I can still picture him in his glasses, going to class with his hard-cased briefcase. I can still see all of his belongings in the back seat of his car—I never forgot one thing about it.”

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