Detectives identify man in a nearly 40-year-old Florida Keys cold case
.jpg "Monroe County Sheriff’s Office detectives and Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators said they identified the remains of a man whose body was found in the Florida Keys in 1988.")
Monroe County sheriff’s detectives and state investigators have identified the remains of a man found dead in the Florida Keys nearly 40 years ago.
Using advanced genetic and DNA methods, Keys detectives, the county’s Medical Examiner Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said the remains of a man’s body found off County Road 905 in Key Largo in May 1988 are that of James Spikes.
The 61-year-old man was last seen leaving his Miami home a month before the body was found covered with trash, wrapped in three sheets and with a shirt pulled forward over his head, said sheriff’s office spokesman Adam Linhardt.
“The body was in advanced decomposition with partial skeletonization,” Linhardt said in a news release.
He said the Monroe County medical examiner ruled the cause and manner of death as undetermined probable homicide.
Spikes was on his way to meet someone when he left his house, but investigators still don’t know who that person is or how Spikes ended up in the Keys, Linhardt said.
Detectives submitted a sample from the scene to FDLE’s crime laboratories in December 2023 for analysis, Linhardt said. Last June, DNA sequencing, genetic genealogy “and other advanced scientific methods” were used to try to match the sample with someone.
In March, results from those tests matched the sample with Spikes, according to the sheriff’s office.
“I want to thank the hard work by the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office, the FDLE, and the Medical Examiner Office for providing closure to the friends and family of Mr. Spikes,” Monroe Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a statement. “Even when cases go cold, we remain committed to providing justice and solace to those affected.”
The case on what happened to Spikes is still open, and detectives ask anyone with information to call 305-289-2410.
This story was originally published April 16, 2026 at 12:35 PM with the headline "Detectives identify man in a nearly 40-year-old Florida Keys cold case."
