{"id":163672,"date":"2026-03-15T02:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T02:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/163672\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T02:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T02:08:08","slug":"headless-victim-in-1976-new-york-cold-case-identified-through-dna-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/163672\/","title":{"rendered":"Headless victim in 1976 New York cold case identified through DNA: police"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The headless, handless body of a man found on the side of a lonely road in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/northeast\/new-york\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">New York\u2019s Allegany County<\/a> 56 years ago has been identified through DNA advancements, officials announced this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Still, his killer hasn\u2019t been caught.<\/p>\n<p>The body of Clyde A. Coppage, 35, was discovered along a road in Andover in upstate New York in March 1970.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/star-murdaugh-trial-witness-probes-mysterious-death-busters-former-classmate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">STAR MURDAUGH TRIAL WITNESS PROBES MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF BUSTER&#8217;S FORMER CLASSMATE<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/clyde-coppage.jpg\" alt=\"Clyde Coppage\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Clyde Coppage&#8217;s body remained unidentified for 56 years.\u00a0 (New York State Police)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Over the course of nearly 56 years, investigating members of the New York State Police continued to track down every lead, but the identity of the male remained unknown,&#8221; New York State Police said in a news release Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Coppage was originally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/northeast\/pennsylvania\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">from Pennsylvania<\/a> and hadn\u2019t been reported missing.<\/p>\n<p>He didn\u2019t have any clothes on or any other way to identify him, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/crime\/police-and-law-enforcement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Trooper James O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> said Friday, according to the Albany Times Union.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/man-confesses-killing-7-year-old-while-lam-after-dna-links-him-30-year-cold-case-authorities\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">MAN CONFESSES TO KILLING 7-YEAR-OLD WHILE ON THE LAM AFTER DNA LINKS HIM TO 30-YEAR-OLD COLD CASE: AUTHORITIES<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/road-where-clyde-coppages-body-was-found.jpg\" alt=\"The road where Clyde Coppage's body was found\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>The road in Andover, N.Y., where Clyde Coppage&#8217;s body was found. (New York State Police)<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Callaghan said the evidence suggested Coppage was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/crime\/homicide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">killed and dismembered<\/a> somewhere else before his body was left on the rural Davis Hill Road\u00a0in Andover.<\/p>\n<p>In June 2022, his body was exhumed for a DNA profile, and, with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/tech\/topics\/fbi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">help of the FBI<\/a>, he was finally identified.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ny-state-police-troop-a-headquarters.jpg\" alt=\"New York State Police Troops A headquarters in Batavia\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>New York State Police Troop A headquarters in upstate New York.\u00a0 (Google Maps)<\/p>\n<p>State police said the Bureau of Criminal Investigation out of NYSP Amity is asking for the public\u2019s help for any information about Coppage or his killer.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation into his death remains active, police said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! The headless, handless body of a man found on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5279,1026,1027,9,24,55,54,56,618],"class_list":["post-163672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-cold-case","tag-crime-world","tag-homicide","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}