John Doe found in Albert Lea identified as a World War II veteran

The body of an unidentified man found in Albert Lea in 2015 has been identified as a World War II veteran who passed away years before he was discovered.

According to the DNA Doe Project, they have identified the remains as belonging to Luis Gilberto Robledo, who is believed to have died sometime between 2000 and 2012.

According to the DNA Doe Project, Robledo’s remains were found on April 6, 2015, with forensic investigators at the time determining he was likely 44-55 years old at the time of his death and may have been Hispanic.

Robledo’s identification was then brought to the DNA Doe Project, which confirmed Robledo was of Mexican descent and had several close DNA matches in their GEDmatch database.

“Hispanic cases are often tough because that population is underrepresented in the DNA databases we have access to,” said team leader Jeana Feehery. “In this case, we were lucky to have close DNA matches on both the mother’s side and the father’s side, which allowed us to identify our John Doe’s parents within 24 hours.”

After discovering his parents, the team was able to narrow down the identity to Robledo, as he was the only son of the couple who was unaccounted for. One of Robledo’s children later took a DNA test, which confirmed the remains were his.

Despite their initial belief that Robledo was middle-aged when he died, they were able to confirm he was born in 1923 and had been much older at the time of his death, possibly in his 80s or 90s.

“We were very surprised when our research led us to a man born in 1923,” said team co-leader Lisa Ivany. “The discrepancy with the age estimate was significant, but the DNA evidence clearly pointed to our John Doe being Luis Robledo.”

Robledo was a native of El Paso, Texas, where he was born. A World War II veteran, at 21 years old, Robledo fought in the Battle of Normandy, where he was wounded, and later settled down in Los Angeles, California.

The last known location of Robledo was in 1990, where an obituary stated he was living in Mexico. It is still unknown how Robledo ended up in Minnesota, as well as when exactly he died.
The post John Doe found in Albert Lea identified as a World War II veteran first appeared on KSTP.com 5 Eyewitness News.