A skull found in a Pennsylvania retention pond almost two years ago was identified on Thursday as belonging to a missing man who faced charges of attempting to kill his wife.
DNA forensics and investigators positively identified the skull in Amity Township, Pennsylvania, as belonging to Roger Hart, who disappeared in 2004, the Berks County District Attorney’s Office announced.
The skull was found by 13-year-old Dylan Bond in April 2022, while he was at his aunt and uncle’s home, ABC affiliate WPVI-TV in Philadelphia reported. An investigation then began to identify the skull.
Dylan told WPVI that he was out looking for frogs at the time and “freaked out” when he discovered the human skull.
According to the district attorney’s news release, no additional skeletal remains were found near the pond but detectives from the Amity Township Police Department suspected it belonged to Hart.
Hart was charged with attempting to kill his wife by slashing her throat with a knife in 2004 at their Pottstown home, but he was never captured after fleeing the crime scene, the news release stated. His wife had filed a protective order against him, and Hart had been living elsewhere, according to “America’s Most Wanted.”
Hart’s car was found near the place where Dylan discovered the skull nearly two decades later. A neighbor had told police in 2004, soon after the crime, that they saw a man who matched Hart’s description enter a wooded area not far from where the car was found, the release stated.
Amity Township Police Chief Jeffrey Smith told WFMZ-TV in Allentown that police dog units searching the pond after the 2004 crime had caught Hart’s scent but that the search was never picked up again.
Hart’s case would go on to be featured in an episode of “America’s Most Wanted.”
According to the district attorney’s office, the condition of the skull and a lack of additional remains mean that a cause of death could not be determined.
