Investigators have identified the man found during a search for a missing teenager through an unusual source: his knee replacements.
Maryland State Police said the man whose body was found near slain 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes has been identified as 55-year-old John Hagegeorge, of Catonsville.
His body was found at Patapsco Valley State Park in April, when authorities found Barnes’ body. Barnes, a straight-A student from North Carolina, was reported missing while visiting her sister in Maryland over the Christmas holidays. Police say Barnes was killed, but have not released a cause of death.
Hagegeorge died of natural causes and there were no signs of foul play, police said. Authorities say they don’t believe his death and Barnes’ are related.
He couldn’t be identified through fingerprints and did not match any missing person records. A state police trooper used the serial numbers on his knee replacements to find the hospital that performed the surgery and identify Hagegeorge as the patient.
Hagegeorge’s estranged wife told investigators that she didn’t report him missing because she had little contact with him and didn’t know he had disappeared, police said.
