Skeletal Remains Identified as Florida Teen Who 'Ran with a Tough Crowd' & Was Missing for More Than 10 Years
More than a decade after he went missing, authorities have identified the skeletal remains of a missing Florida teen, officially opening a new investigation into his cause of death.
On Monday (January 26), the Walton County Sheriff’s Office and the Niceville Police Department confirmed in a joint press conference that skeletal remains found in 2022 had been positively identified as belonging to Jacob Lyon, a 19-year-old boy who was reported missing in February 2016.
Keep reading to find out more…
During the press conference, Niceville Police Chief Mark Hayse confirmed that authorities had been searching for Jacob since he was reported missing. In February 2016, his mother had not heard from him in approximately three months.
He confirmed that they investigated “more than 20 tips,” looking across Florida and surrounding states for the teen with no luck.
In a news release shared on Facebook by the sheriff’s office, it was confirmed that the skeletal remains were discovered in Miramar Beach.
“On October 20th, 2022, a man clearing a wooded area in Miramar Beach discovered skeletal fragments. Walton County Sheriff’s Office and the District 1 Medical Examiner responded,” the release stated.
An investigation into identifying the remains was ongoing for two years before the District 1 Medical Examiner asked the sheriff’s office to “send samples to [the Florida Department of Law Enforcement]” for ongoing testing.
“DNA testing on skeletal remains is very complex from degradation over time, environmental exposure, and limited genetic material, all of which can make extraction, amplification, and interpretation incredibly challenging. This process can take a long period of time,” authorities explained in the release.
They were informed on January 21 that an official identification had been made, linking the remains to Jacob.
“This is not the result our community hoped for. For his family, we hope there is peace in knowing Jacob has been found,” the statement read, adding that the sheriff’s office would “continue working closely with the Niceville Police Department, with a shared commitment to finding answer about how Jacob died.”
In the press conference, Hayse confirmed that the investigation into Jacob‘s disappearance had been ongoing, with them looking into tips through late 2025.
Major Dustin Cosson from the sheriff’s office also spoke, saying that the remains had been found in a “small wooded lot that links up to a community to a subdivision.”
However, he added that the area “looks completely different” now than it did in 2022, saying that it was behind a Sleep Inn hotel that no longer exists.
He added that possible evidence was found near the body, saying, “This is not by any means the end of an investigation, but it’s the furtherance and the start of another investigation. So we have the death investigation now that’s ongoing to really make sure that we get some more answers.”
“Jacob is home. Jacob is back with his family, and the family is able to make a little bit of closure. And it’s our hope that we can continue to get answers,” he added.
Niceville Police Lieutenant John Lee has been part of the investigation from the beginning.
Asked to describe Jacob, he said that he “ran with a tough crowd. He was having a hard time. He was trying to find himself. But I’ve never met Jacob myself, so I can only go off of what people tell me.”
According to The Charley Project, a database run to help provide information about people who have been missing for extended periods of time, Jacob was born on April 2, 1996.
He had been “staying with various relatives in Mossey Head and Niceville, Florida at the time of his disappearance.”
The organization also reported, “He was having problems and in October 2015 he was involuntarily committed to a hospital for psychiatric care.”