The Skeleton Key Chronicles

8 hours ago

In March 1981, Glen Napoleon Burbage flew from his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he was supposed to meet up with the ship he worked aboard. He made it to Atlantic City, but somewhere between the airport and his destination, he disappeared, and his family would spend the next 45 years trying to find out what happened to him.

Glen was 59 years old, a retired Coast Guard officer who had continued working at sea as a merchant mariner. There was nothing particularly unusual about the trip itself, which made his disappearance even more difficult to understand.

On May 22nd, 1981, roughly two months after Glen went missing, boaters discovered an unidentified man in the Atlantic Ocean about a mile off the coast of Atlantic City. Investigators believed he had been in the water for several weeks, but they were unable to identify him. Glen's family was still looking for him, unaware that someone matching the answer to their search had been found so close to where he disappeared. The unidentified man's case continued in New Jersey while Glen's disappearance went unresolved for decades.

In April 2026, New Jersey State Police turned to Ramapo College's Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center for help identifying the man found in 1981. Students and researchers began examining DNA matches and tracing family connections, eventually identifying Glen as a possibility. Investigators worked with authorities in South Carolina to obtain a DNA sample from one of his children, and in July, the results confirmed that the unidentified man was Glen Napoleon Burbage. The discovery was announced publicly in October, more than 45 years after his disappearance.

Glen's son Daniel was 32 when his father went missing. Now, after all these years, the family finally has the opportunity to bring him home for burial in the family plot. But identifying Glen hasn't explained what happened during those final hours in Atlantic City, or how he ended up in the ocean. Those questions are still being investigated.

I wanted to include Glen's story in my Veterans Day coverage because he was a Coast Guard veteran whose family spent more than four decades searching for answers. His identification has finally closed one chapter of that search, even though the circumstances of his disappearance are still a mystery.

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

12 hours ago

This Veterans Day, I'm focusing on missing service members and mysterious cases involving people who have served in the military. One of those cases involves Kelly Gravitt, a Purple Heart recipient who disappeared from Hawaii's Big Island more than three years ago.

Kelly served with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division and sustained a TBI in 2010 during his service in Afghanistan. By May 2023, he was living in the Pāhoa area of Hawaii, where he was last seen at the age of 34.

The original police bulletin described Kelly walking near Pāhoa Village Road and Kauhale Street around 7 p.m. on May 19th, wearing gray shorts and no shirt.

More recent updates have given an earlier last-seen window of May 12th through May 14th, near Highway 130 and Kaimu-Makena Homestead Road. Kelly was familiar with the Pāhoa and Kalapana areas, including Kehena Beach and Uncle Robert's. He stood approximately six feet tall, weighed 180 pounds, and had distinctive tattoos on his face and neck.

Over the following three years, detectives conducted numerous interviews and followed up on leads. On November 10th, 2026, Hawaii Island police issued another public appeal, asking anyone with information about Kelly to contact Detective Sybastian Keltner.

Kelly would now be 38 years old. More than three years after his disappearance, his family is still waiting for answers. 🕯

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

1 day ago

An 11-month-old South Carolina baby who disappeared on Monday has been located safely after a search that continued into Tuesday. Little Koah Sharpe was discovered in Lexington County under circumstances that investigators are calling extraordinary.

Koah was last seen around 11 a.m. on November 9th with his father, 25-year-old Michael Comer, in the Batesburg-Leesville area. According to Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon, Koah's grandmother had been caring for him when Comer arrived and took over his care while another caregiver was on the way. By the time that person arrived, both father and son were gone. Family members contacted authorities that afternoon, and deputies began searching. Comer was located late Monday night in a shed and taken into custody on an unrelated charge, but Koah wasn't with him. The search continued Tuesday as additional agencies joined the effort.

Investigators eventually noticed an area of freshly disturbed dirt covered with pine straw near the home of Comer's father. As they began searching that spot, they heard a baby crying. Koah was discovered inside a small dog crate wrapped in a towel beneath the ground. Sheriff Koon estimated that he may have been there for approximately 24 hours and suggested the towel could have created an air pocket that helped him breathe, and ultimately survive.

Koah was immediately taken for treatment. His father is in custody, and investigators are continuing to piece together what happened. After more than a day of uncertainty, the most important news is that Koah is safe and getting the help he needs.

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