Remains discovered in a wooded area of New Castle County, Delaware, in June 2011 have finally been identified as Hannah Graham Kleitz, a 29-year-old woman who died of a medical illness in 1907. The New Castle County Police cold case unit reopened the investigation years later and turned to forensic investigative genetic genealogy, contacting volunteers nationwide for ancestral DNA profiles.
The breakthrough came in January 2026, when a potential family member told police that a relative’s mausoleum and grave at Riverview Cemetery had been unlawfully removed back in 2002. With the extended family’s blessing, investigators exhumed and compared DNA. The match confirmed Kleitz’s identity, closing a mystery that had spanned more than a century.
On Aug. 27, 2026, family members and investigators returned her remains to the mausoleum, restoring a resting place that had been disturbed decades earlier. For those of us on the Suncoast who treasure local history, from the Ringling legacy to the generations buried in our own coastal cemeteries, this one resonates. It’s proof that patience, science, and family can accomplish what once seemed impossible.
Have you ever researched your own family history? What did you find?
