SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A decades-old mystery has been solved after DNA evidence links a man dubbed “The bridge hero” by local media to his family.

Today the Yolo County coroner’s office identified the remains of a 1987 “John Doe” as “James Wray Miller” of Iowa. The unidentified man had jumped into the Sacramento River in an attempt to rescue people that drove off the bridge.

It’s a case that has a lot of twists and turns reaching starting in the Midwest.

READ: Postal Worker Saves 16-Year-Old From Sex Trafficking In Oak Park

“I grew up thinking dad was a bank robber and he ran off.”

Kristene Feldhaus grew up in Ames, Iowa where her dad James Wray Miller left in his car in 1986 after being accused of robbing a bank.

Unbeknownst to her, hundreds of miles away, in September of 1987, a truck plunged off the Tower Bridge after an intoxicated bridge operator raised the span without turning on the warning lights. Two people in the truck drowned.

According to the Yolo County sheriff’s office, a few days later another body was recovered, a John Doe. That’s where things got complicated.

John Doe had another man’s birth certificate in his pocket so the coroner’s office misidentified him.

Then, a man authorities describe as a con artist claimed John Doe was his brother and took his ashes in an attempt to steal his identity. He later mailed the ashes back.

ALSO: CDC: Don’t Wash Or Reuse Condoms

For most of her life, Feldhaus believed her dad, who had repeated trouble with the law, was dead.

“He was an alcoholic, severe,” Feldhaus said.

But after naming her fifth child after her dad, she decided to find the truth and searched a justice department website for missing people.

“I’m looking at this picture of a John Doe and I put it up with a picture of dad, and I see my dad!” she said.

She then submitted her DNA to authorities. While she was waiting to hear more, she searched newspaper clippings about the John Doe that she thought could be her father and she found a fascinating story.

“He saw a truck go in and he ran or dove in and never came back so he was trying to help, trying to save people. And that is a huge awesome thing that I never saw coming,” Feldhaus said.

After recently learning the DNA was a match to James Wray Miller, Feldhaus said she’s glad she can now tell her kids that grandpa died trying to help people.

“It was vindication for me because I grew up thinking my dad’s not there. Dad died doing the right thing and that makes up for everything.”