WAYNE COUNTY, Mich. – After nearly three decades of mystery, skeletal remains found in a rolled-up carpet in a Plymouth Township field near railroad tracks have been identified as those of Benjamin Harrison Fountain, a World War II veteran born in 1926.
What he believed was a discarded carpet revealed a decade-old homicide.
“When you see a case like this, the biggest thing is timeline—trying to figure out what happened and why,” said Detective Sergeant Jason Hayes of the Plymouth Township Police Department. “There’s a huge gap between 1986 and 1997. That’s what we’re trying to fill.”
Police determined early on that the remains had been in the field for around 10 years.
The body, found with clothing, jewelry, and a gold class ring, belonged to a slim adult male approximately 5′8″ tall.
A .357 slug was also found with the remains. The man appeared to have died from a head injury, and the case was ruled a homicide.
“The autopsy was blunt force trauma. There was a large head wound on the skull,” Hayes said. “We haven’t held anyone accountable yet.”
Despite efforts over the years—including public appeals, ballistics testing, and DNA analysis uploaded to CODIS in 2015—the man remained unidentified.
The case was listed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) as UP11420.
In 2022, the Plymouth Township Police Department partnered with Othram, a Texas-based forensic lab specializing in advanced DNA and genetic genealogy.
Forensic-grade genome sequencing was used to extract a comprehensive DNA profile from Fountain’s bones.
That profile confirmed the man’s ancestry as African, not Caucasian —a critical breakthrough in narrowing down potential family matches.
Othram’s in-house genealogy team developed leads based on the profile and traced potential relatives.
A great-niece voluntarily provided a DNA sample, which confirmed the identity: Benjamin Harrison Fountain, born May 6, 1926.
Fountain was born in Virginia, lived in West Virginia, and eventually settled in Detroit. He was drafted into service during World War II.
“The last time anyone’s really talked about Benjamin Fountain was 1986 when he applied for a new Michigan driver’s license,” said Hayes.
From that point forward, according to police, there was not much information on his whereabouts until the gruesome discovery in 1997.
“Benjamin Fountain was about 72 years old at that time. Now he would be 100,” said Hayes.
Following his identification, Fountain’s remains were released by the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office and laid to rest on May 16, 2025, at Our Lady of Hope Cemetery in Brownstown, Michigan—100 years after his birth.
“If you know him, give me a call. If you know what happened, give me a call,” said Hayes. “We just want to figure out why and get to the truth of what happened.”
Anyone with information about Benjamin Fountain or the circumstances surrounding his death is urged to contact Detective Sergeant Jason Hayes at (734) 354-3250 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.
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