Remains recovered in 2007 identified as diver who went missing in Florida, deputies say

Remains recovered in 2007 were identified as a diver who went missing while off the coast of Ponce Inlet, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office announced on Friday.

Using funding from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) grant and FDLE’s Genetic Genealogy Investigations team, Volusia sheriff’s detectives were provided a lead to a DNA match of a family member, and identified the remains as Robert Martin.

The identification solved a nearly decade-long case.

Deputies said, in 2006, the U.S. Coast Guard responded to a distress call about 20 miles east of Ponce Inlet at a popular diving spot known as the “party grounds.”

According to the sheriff’s office, Martin was diving with two associates when he became distressed and went underwater.

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