Flagstaff, Arizona (TCD) — Authorities have identified a murder victim whose body was found in a shallow grave north of Flagstaff in 2020.

According to a news release from the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office:Authorities recovered the bodies along Highway 180 near the lava caves, but were unable to identify the victims at the time because they were in an “advanced stage of decomposition.” However, the Coconino County coroner’s office was able to rule the victim’s death a homicide.

In May 2021, authorities sent the DNA samples to a private forensic genealogy laboratory. Analysis of the sample linked the victim to a family tree in January of this year, but investigators were unable to locate one of the family members within the tree, later identified as David Wilkinson. . The sheriff’s office said Ms. Wilkinson was “known to have frequently visited the Phoenix and Prescott areas in 2019 and 2020.”

sheriff’s office posted a missing person flyer for Wilkinson in April, saying Wilkinson was likely traveling in a 1997 Toyota Paseo with a dog or two. Investigators believe he was camping near Forest Service Road 245 in the summer of 2020.

Shortly after the missing persons flyer was released, investigators analyzed additional DNA and “confirmed that David Clark Wilkinson was the murder victim in this case,” according to the sheriff’s office.

An investigation is ongoing, and the sheriff’s office is asking anyone with information about the incident to come forward. Officials did not say if a potential suspect had been identified.

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