Authorities have taken another step towards potentially learning more about the person investigators call “the man in the dunes” — a headless torso discovered on a Sandwich beach six years ago.

Massachusetts State Police are now releasing a DNA-generated composite photo of what officials say the man’s face may have looked like in hopes of identifying him, WCVB first reported Wednesday.

The gruesome discovery at Town Neck Beach on June 4, 2014 left authorities with little information about the man who was killed, according to State Police Sgt. Matt Lavoie.

“The limbs were removed in such a way to hinder identification, probably to get rid of tattoos,” Lavoie told WCVB. “We ran the victim’s DNA through the national databases, there were no hits. There wasn’t much of a description to work on.”


Police turned over DNA collected from the torso to Parabon Labs in Virginia, which created the image, according to the news station.

BREAKING: #5Investigates with the first look at “the man in the dunes.” His torso was dumped in the dunes of a Cape Cod beach in 2014. Details coming up in a few minutes on @WCVB Do you recognize him? #WCVB pic.twitter.com/rY1uRSatzh — Kathy Curran (@KathyReports) March 4, 2020

The man may have been between 5 feet, 8 inches and 6 feet tall, and may have weighed 230 pounds, WCVB reports. He had a surgical scar on his stomach’s right side.

Lavoie said identifying the victim is an important step in the investigation.

“We can find out where they were from, what kind of life they led, who they dealt with in their personal life and hopefully try and track down the last people they dealt with, if possible, and maybe get a suspect from that,” he told the station.

Authorities said that even with the photo, the public should remember the victim may have looked slightly different in real life. Anyone with information related to the case is asked to call detectives at 508 790-5799.