MERCER COUNTY, Ohio (WOWO): The Mercer County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday they have identified skeletal remains found in 2016 as 22-year-old Ryan Zimmerman.
Sheriff Jeff Gray says Zimmerman moved to Columbus in 2015 from Corbin, Kentucky after meeting people online through a gaming community.
He disappeared sometime later. His father filed a missing persons report in Columbus after his car was impounded.
RELATED: Officials to release update on Mercer County skeletal remains case
Zimmerman’s bones were found by a hiker in early January of 2016 in woods near Grand Lake St. Mary’s State Park.
DNA testing was used to help determine where Zimmerman was from, and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation matched his DNA with an active missing persons case in Columbus.
Officials suspect foul play is involved in the case. Sheriff Gray says Zimmerman’s parents have been fully cooperative and are not suspects.
If you have any information, please call detectives at 419-586-1450 or call the anonymous tip line at 419-567-TIPS (8477).
