By admin 
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – 13 News has learned of a major break in a case that we were first to tell you about being brought into the spotlight last year.
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Thanks to genetic genealogy, we now know the identity of a Marine veteran who was murdered 26 years ago–Jack Prehoda.
In January of 2000, a vehicle was set on fire near Broadway and Kolb behind a business.
And inside, police made a brutal discovery.
A body was burned beyond recognition, with just a few remnants of clothing pieces.
“The victim, all we knew was a male, probably between 50 and 65, I think, was the range. And then we just had, you know, his build and stature. And that was literally all there was to go on,” says TPD Detective David Miller.
For years, that was all that was known, until a DNA profile was able to be created from parts of skeletal remains.
That was a large enough profile to be searched against missing persons and familial associations.
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And then came a lead.
“The victim’s name was Jack Prehoda, and he was 61 years old at the time, back in 2000. And he was originally from the east coast, but the last known state was in Florida. And we have record of him being in the Florida area, you know, a year prior to his death and how he eventually ended up here in Tucson. Not a lot of known associates or friends of Mr. Prehoda’s. And given the age of him at the time, which was, you know, was that 26 years ago? It was, it’s been difficult to locate, you know, close living relatives next of kin to make notification once he was identified. So that was a kind of an investigation into, in and of itself,” says Miller.
But identifying Jack Prehoda was a team effort.
The Pima County office of the Medical Examiner and GenGenies, pro bono, partnered with Tucson Police to use genetic geneology to find his identity.
Prehoda was not from Tucson. His last known locations where he resided were in St. Petersburg and Florida Keys areas.
So some of the bigger questions have been, why was he here?
Do any of his associates in Florida know more that can help detectives?
And the biggest of all, who killed him?
“It’s always important to know as much as you can about a victim, to just track what their hobbies, their work, any vices they had, to help build a timeline and what may have led to the person being murdered,” says Miller.
13 News is told there are leads on a suspect in Prehoda’s homicide, but Tucson Police can still use some help from those who knew him best.
They’re now hoping anyone from Tucson to Florida might hold the answers to cracking the case.
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If you have any information on this case, please reach out to 88-CRIME.