Unidentified body believed to be victim of plane crash 51 years ago exhumed

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A family in the United States has begun the agonizing wait to see if the remains of a John Doe exhumed from Lakeview Cemetery in Leamington on Wednesday are that of their father who died in a plane crash 51 years ago.

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“We’re just waiting to see,” Anita Wilson, daughter-in-law of James Wilson, who died in the crash in 1970, said from her home near Boston, Massachusetts.

“My husband, he’s very upset today,” Anita said of her husband, Mark, who was 16 when his father died. “I’m sure they’re very wrenched, too,” she said of Mark’s four siblings. “I couldn’t sleep last night because of how this will affect everyone.”

An excavator was used to begin digging up Plot L33-3-4-17. Then workers stood in the grave removing the rest of the dirt by hand.

The skeletal remains were found in a wood box that was disintegrating and broke when it was being taken out of the grave, Anita said police told her Wednesday.

The remains were put in a body bag, placed on a gurney and loaded into a vehicle to be transported to the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service in Toronto.

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Norfolk County OPP Det. Sgt. Michael Wilfong was at the scene along with representatives from the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario and the Town of Leamington.

The family, who all live in the U.S., was not present.

James Wilson, who was general manager of McDowell-Wellman Engineering Company, was flying from Cleveland to Detroit on January 28, 1970 for a groundbreaking ceremony for a new building.

TAG Airlines flight 730, a nine-passenger DeHavilland Dove, took off from Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland at 7:38 a.m.

Eleven minutes later, it disappeared from radar. There was no distress signal.

All nine passengers died when the aircraft smashed into the ice on Lake Erie.

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Wilson was the only one whose body was never found.

He left a wife and five children, the youngest only seven years old.

Research by Norfolk County OPP Det. Const. Jon Van Brugge linked the John Doe, found at Point Pelee two months after the crash, to James Wilson. The descriptions and dental records of the two men all appear to match. An autopsy conducted when John Doe was found determined he drowned.

Ontario Chief Coroner Dr. Dirk Huyer wrote to Anita two weeks ago to say that John Doe would be exhumed and the remains examined to obtain DNA to try to identify the body.

The bones will be laid out and catalogued to document what was found, said Stephanie Rea, spokesperson for the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service. They will then be examined by a pathologist and a forensic anthropologist to determine the condition. A piece of bone will be chosen to extract DNA from.

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That bone will be sent to the Centre of Forensic Science, also in Toronto, which will attempt to extract the DNA and compare it to that of the family.

The ability to extract DNA depends on how long the person has been dead, the condition of the body before embalming and if it was embalmed, Rea said.

“There are so many variables,” she said. “It’s very hard to determine what you may or may not have before you look at it.”

It could take at least 60 days to get an answer, she said.

If the remains are identified as that of James Wilson, they will be given to the family. If they aren’t, they will be returned to Plot L33-3-4-17.

“That’s our goal, to match the DNA to the family,” said Wilfong. “We’re quite hopeful the family can finally get an answer and bring their loved one home.”

“I have a feeling it is him,” said Anita, who began trying to find her father-in-law several years ago.

“If it is him, we will come to Canada to pick up the body,” she said.

They’ll drive, she said. Her husband doesn’t like flying.

They also want to thank the detectives who linked the cases.

And, said Anita, “I want to see Point Pelee, where he washed up.”

ajarvis@postmedia.com