DNA testing confirms identity of body found in 1980s to be missing teenager

PROVO, Utah (ABC4) — A cold case from the 1980s was recently solved thanks to DNA testing, confirming that a body found in 1983 was that of a teenager who went missing the year before.

Robby Lynn Peay was 17 years old when he ran away from a Salt Lake City youth treatment center on Oct. 7, 2982. A body was recovered in Arches National Park in Moab, Utah, in February 1983, but was not able to be identified at that time because of how decomposed the body was.

The body was found with a gunshot wound to the head, and “appeared to have similar physical characteristics to Peay.” Peay’s dental records were compared to the remains, but were “declared similar, but not a match,” the Provo Police Department said in a press release.

“These remains were never identified, and were buried in an unmarked grave in Moab, under the name of John Doe,” the release reads.

Months after the body was found, Peay’s truck was found abandoned in Lake Powell, about 350 miles away. Family members filed to have Peay declared deceased in 1990 and placed a gravestone in Provo Cemetery.

On March 19, 2025, the Provo Police Department announced that the body had officially been identified as Peay, thanks to DNA testing.

“[Robby] Peay had been missing for over 40 years when the breakthrough finally came through dental records and DNA testing,” Detective Sergeant Patterson said in a press release. “With this crucial evidence, we were able to identify an unknown individual, bringing long-awaited answers to a family that had spent decades in uncertainty.”

Peay’s death is suspected to be a homicide, and the information on the case has been sent to detectives in Grand County.

How the case was solved

In 2018, Peay’s information was added to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).

After his information was submitted, authorities were notified that Peay’s dental records were submitted incorrectly. Once the dental records were corrected, results came back saying there was a 90% match to the John Doe found in Moab in 1983.

However, the X-ray images on file were not able to be used for comparison because they were from Peay’s youth, so authorities needed a DNA sample.

Upon learning Peay was adopted, detectives sought to unseal court adoption records. A judge unsealed those records in 2022, and detectives learned Peay had no surviving direct biological family members, but authorities were able to obtain a DNA sample from an uncle on Peay’s mother’s side.

Authorities sought to exhume the body of the Grand County John Doe in order to obtain a DNA sample. Around that time, NamUs funded testing of Peay’s uncle’s DNA and compared it with a previously obtained sample from the unidentified remains.

“When NamUs notified Provo Detectives of the DNA match and forwarded their documentation, it was found that many years prior, Summit County investigators had obtained a DNA sample from Grand County’s John Doe, to compare to a death they were investigating,” Provo police said. “Summit County Detectives had sent that DNA to NamUs, and it was ultimately forgotten about until the match.”

The DNA confirmed that the body found in Moab was Peay, and the findings were certified by the medical examiner. The information from Provo’s case file was sent to detectives in Grand County, who are in charge of the investigation into the homicide of Peay.