Police: Skeletal remains identified as missing city man

Yahoo

26-03-2025

CUMBERLAND — Skeletal remains discovered March 4 in a wooded area off Independence Street were those of a city man missing for nearly two years, Cumberland Police said Tuesday.
Ray Lawrence Aleshire was reported missing by his son March 9, 2023, after several weeks without contact, Chief Chuck Ternent said in a news release, adding Aleshire was homeless and stayed in the local area, but it was unusual for him to be out of contact for so long.
Aleshire's remains were found by a person using a metal detector in a wooded area around the 300 block of Independence. At the time, police said the scattered bones found 'may be of human origin.'
That day, detectives, crime scene technicians from Maryland State Police and a forensic investigator from the state medical examiner's office collected evidence scattered across an acre of woodland, Ternent said.
Authorities found a backpack and documents with Aleshire's name during a second search over an expanded area March 11, Ternent said.
A forensic anthropologist at the state medical examiner's office compared the remains to Aleshire's known medical records to make the identification. A cause of death could not be determined, Ternent said.
A Go Fund Me for Aleshire's funeral costs has been established at https://www.gofundme.com/f/honor-larrys-memory-funeral-costs.