A Washoe County cold case has been solved, with the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner’s Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation’s NamUs Initiative positively identifying a man who died in 2008.

The man has been identified by fingerprint comparison as Terry Frankson, who was 56 years old at the time of his death. His family has been notified and claimed his remains.

The unidentified person poster from 2008 to determine his identity is

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Frankson’s body was found along the banks of the Truckee River just east of Sparks in January 2008. An autopsy was performed on Frankson at the time, and it was determined his cause of death was drowning, but his identity was not determined.

“NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, is an online database that is extremely useful to medical examiners and coroners,” says Washoe County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Laura Knight. “We enter information in the system for individuals who have died and whose identity is unknown. Despite our best efforts, these cases may linger unidentified for years.”

“The FBI’s recent NamUs system has added additional resources so new hits, or information, are being obtained on old cases despite having run the fingerprints through the system previously,” says Dr. Knight. “Medical examiners and coroners across the U.S. are obtaining identification on individuals from unidentified cold cases from 10, 20, or more years ago. This allows those cases to finally be closed, and those individuals to finally be laid to rest.”