At long last, the human remains that were found by a gold panner in Colorado have been identified.

On December 27, 2024, a man was panning for gold along the Arapahoe Bar Gold Panning Park in Wheat Ridge, Colorado – which is found along Clear Creek and about four miles east of Golden – when human skeletal remains were discovered. This prompted a multi-agency investigation involving the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office, the Wheat Ridge Police Department and the Lakewood Police Department, with more than a year set to pass before the identity of the remains would be determined.

Initially, a forensic anthropologist with the coroner’s office determined that the remains belonged to a white male between the ages of 50 to 70 with a height of five-foot-five to six-foot-two who had been deceased for 1.5 to 2.5 years. Identification remained difficult though, due to how the remains were fully skeletal.

Headway in the case was made, however, when a bone fragment was sent to an organization called Othram Inc, which specializes in genetic genealogy out of Texas. This company was able to build a DNA profile of the unidentified remains, sending information about relatives of the deceased individual back to Colorado. The relatives linked to the individual would have been alive in the early 1900s, which mean quite a bit of investigative work remained.

At this point, the case was spearheaded by coroner’s office investigator Chandler Ellis, who was able to trace descendants of the deceased man back to the late 1800s in Syria, building a comprehensive family lineage from there. Ultimately, a connection that linked the family tree to Colorado was found in a man named Robbie Swor, born in 1968, whom a close relative had not heard from in about 10 years with Robbie having last been known to be in the Denver area. Further DNA work with the relative confirmed that the skeletal remains were those of Swor. Now that Swor has been identified, he will be cremated with his ashes returned to his family to be laid to rest.

While this case involves the tragic death of an individual, it goes to show how modern technology can be used to provide answers to families of those who go missing in Colorado’s natural areas.

Condolences go out to those impacted by Swor’s death.

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