A skull found in Pennsylvania in 2022 has been identified as a man missing since 2004 after attempting to murder his wife.
The skull was discovered by a juvenile in April 2022 from a pond in Amity Township, not far from where the car of Roger Hart was found in April 2004.
Hart was accused of trying to kill his wife at their Pottstown, Pennsylvania, home. He was charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and stalking shortly before he disappeared, the Berks County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
Hart‘s wallet and keys were left in his car, and a neighbor living near the pond told investigators at the time that he saw a man who looked like him exit the car and head into a wooded area, the DA’s office said.
Subsequent searches of the pond after the initial 2022 discovery didn’t turn up any other bones. The skull was sent to Mercyhurst University in Erie for an anthropological examination, which determined that the person it belonged to was a man who died more than 10 years before.
DNA testing by the FBI and Pennsylvania State Police matched the skull to Hart. Due to the skull’s condition and the lack of other remains, his cause of death can’t be determined, the DA’s office said.