Skeleton found 38 years ago ID’d as man who vanished after having ‘friction’ with gal pal’s ex

A skeleton found nearly 40 years ago on the side of a highway was finally identified as a Rhode Island man who had “friction” with another man after he started dating his ex-girlfriend, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Keith Olson’s remains were positively identified after his remains were found on April 8, 1985, by a driver traveling along Interstate 195 in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, according to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.

The then-27-year-old Cranston, Rhode Island, resident had been reported missing in 1981.

Authorities were unable to determine who the skeleton was at the time, but were able to rule the man’s death a homicide, the district attorney’s office said, according to masslive.com.

Advanced DNA testing finally led to a crack in the case, prosecutors noted.

No suspect has been pinpointed in Olson’s death, but prosecutors said he had been dating a woman at the time he disappeared, which had led to “friction” between him and her ex-boyfriend.

Two men escorted Olson from his Cranston apartment around the time he went missing, a witness previously told investigators, the outlet reported.

The woman’s ex-beau, identified as North Providence resident John Broccoli, made “cryptic statements”  to the woman Olson had been seeing on the day he went missing, which indicated he might’ve been involved, prosecutors also reportedly said.

Broccoli, also known as Michael Corleone, died in 2019 at the age of 63.

“Police have strong reason to believe that the crime was committed by at least two people and believe that there are individuals who could provide helpful information to solve this crime,” District Attorney Thomas Quinn’s office wrote in a news release. 

Olson’s loved ones said in a statement to WCVB that his disappearance “has been the most horrible experience our family has ever faced.”

“The not knowing and the longing for him to come home has long been a tremendous devastation,” they said.