BEVERLY SHORES — Officials have identified a body that washed up on a Beverly Shores beach Wednesday as that of a Michigan man missing since early February.
Porter County Coroner Chuck Harris said the body was identified Friday as that of 33-year-old Willie Edward Hurse of Benton Harbor. Benton Township Police issued a missing persons bulletin for Hurse on Feb. 4.
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Harris said officials were using a two-pronged approach to identify the badly decomposed remains. Indiana State Police attempted to pull fingerprints from the remains while officials also investigated a surgically implanted metal support rod with serial numbers discovered in the man’s leg.
“On Friday the Indiana State Police Crime Lab was able to secure a fingerprint from the body and ran it through IAFIS (the Integrated Automatic Fingerprint Identification System),” Harris said Saturday.
Harris said officials initially were not sure if either method for identification would have been successful. Hurse was identified by his thumbprints, the only digits from which experts were able to pull prints.
“This actually happened a lot sooner than expected,” Harris said. Officials initially estimated the identification process could take a couple weeks.
It still isn’t known how the man ended up in the Lake Michigan and how he died. Harris said police officials were not looking for the missing man in the lake. Due to the condition of the remains officials may not be able to determine the cause of death.
Anyone with information may contact Indiana Department of Natural Resources Detective Brian Kaser in Michigan City at 879-5710 or the Porter County Coroner’s Office at 548-0208.
