Vermont State Police announced Wednesday that a skull found along the Connecticut River belongs to a man who’d disappeared 25 years ago.
Brian Cranfield, 37, of Weatherfield and Terry Brinegar, 44, of Mount Holly disappeared in 2001 while fishing together at Sumner Falls in Hartland. Both were believed to have drowned, according to state police.
Brinegar’s body was found a few weeks after he disappeared at the Bellows Falls dam, but Cranfield’s body couldn’t be located.
In 2006, Connecticut State Police found a skull along the Connecticut River in the town of Haddam. Last year, after conducting DNA testing, Connecticut State Police sent material from the skull to Othram, a Texas business that uses DNA testing and genetic genealogy to help with law enforcement investigations.
Connecticut State Police sent a DNA sample from Cranfield’s brother, and this past weekend, Othram told the agency that Cranfield's brother’s sample matched the skull found in 2006, Vermont State Police said in a press release.
Vermont State Police have now closed the case.
There are more than 80 unsolved homicides and missing persons cases in Vermont. Cold cases can be difficult to solve, though DNA testing and genetic genealogy have helped police make progress on some recent cases and even close some cases.
In 2024, state police were able to identify the skull of a man who went missing in 2010, and they closed the case of an infant found dead in 1982. In 2023, Burlington Police solved the murder of Rita Curran, one of the state’s most high profile cold cases, using DNA from a cigarette found at the crime scene.
