Body of Robby Peay, Provo boy missing nearly 43 years, confirmed as ‘John Doe’ buried in Moab

PROVO — A headstone in a Provo cemetery with no body buried underneath. A patch of grass in a Moab cemetery with no headstone but the body of “John Doe” buried in the ground.

Now, Provo police have positively linked the two.

On Wednesday, police announced that they have confirmed the body of John Doe — a victim of a suspected homicide buried at Moab’s Sunset Memorial Gardens Cemetery — is that of Robby Lynn Peay, a 17-year-old Provo boy who went missing nearly 43 years ago in 1982.

Robby Peay’s story

On Oct. 7, 1982, Robby Peay ran away from a youth treatment center in Salt Lake City. Because his home was in Provo, the Provo Police Department was called to handle the missing persons case.

On Feb. 12, 1983 — about four months after Peay ran away — a male body was recovered from the Three Gossips area of Arches National Park. Dubbed John Doe, the male died from being shot in the back of his head, according to police.

The “physical characteristics of John Doe are very similar to Robby Peay,” but a positive match could not be made because of decomposition, according to a search warrant affidavit. Police put John Doe’s dental records into a national database for missing people, and while they were similar to Peay’s records, they did not match.

Robby Peay’s truck was found abandoned 350 miles away near Lake Powell months after the body was discovered in Moab. But Peay’s body was never found, and an arrest was never made in connection with the body discovered in Grand County. In 1990, Peay’s family filed to have him declared legally deceased. Today, in a corner of the Provo Cemetery, near the fence that separates the public sidewalk from the cemetery grounds, is a headstone that states “In memory of Robby Lynn Peay, Born Aug. 2, 1965, Missing since Oct. 7, 1982.”

A break in the Peay investigation

A big break in the investigation came in 2018 when a Provo police officer who was recovering from surgery and couldn’t go out into the field was assigned to look over some of the department’s older cases. He looked at the Peay case again after a body with Peay’s characteristics was found in another state. But while that body turned out not to be a match, police said it was during that time that a forensic dentist who had been asked to take another look at Peay’s records made a significant discovery.

“It was discovered the original dental X-rays were entered (into the national database) upside down. And so the forensic dentist said, ‘Hey, this is not right,’ and he corrected them. And with that correction, we got a hit that was even more indicative that it could be a match to the case in Grand County,” Provo Police Lt. Chris Chambers told KSL.com in 2022.

From that point, police strongly suspected the body in Moab was Peay’s.

In order to make a definitive match, Chambers said detectives needed to compare DNA.

Their first hope was to find a family member of Peay and conduct a familial DNA test in order to make a comparison with John Doe. But Peay was adopted when he was 11 months old, according to police. And despite their efforts requesting that Peay’s original birth certificate be unsealed, a judge turned police down.

After years of trying, Provo police in 2022 received the original birth certificate with the names of Peay’s biological parents as well as court adoption records only to discover there were no surviving direct biological family members.

“Through further genealogical searching, detectives were eventually able to locate a maternal uncle and obtain swabs for DNA testing. This DNA was submitted to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (database),” Provo police announced Wednesday.

Exhuming John Doe

Detectives then began the process of requesting that John Doe’s body be exhumed so DNA could be collected. It was at that time when police discovered DNA from John Doe had already been collected and was on file. They then learned that employees at the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System went ahead and compared the relative’s DNA to John Doe’s.

“When the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System notified Provo detectives of the DNA match and forwarded their documentation, it was found that many years prior, Summit County investigators had obtained a DNA sample from Grand County’s John Doe to compare to a death they were investigating. Summit County detectives had sent that DNA to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, and it was ultimately forgotten about until the match.

“The DNA match confirmed the remains in Grand County were indeed Provo’s missing person,” Provo police announced.

“Working cold cases as a detective is both challenging and time-consuming. Sifting through old files and photos, trying to reconstruct the past, can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. But the moment you uncover that long-awaited lead — the one that has eluded investigators for years — makes all the effort worthwhile,” Provo Police Sgt. Nick Patterson said Wednesday.

“Robbie Peay had been missing for over 40 years when the breakthrough finally came through dental records and DNA testing. With this crucial evidence, we were able to identify an unknown individual, bringing long-awaited answers to a family that had spent decades in uncertainty. Moments like these are among the most rewarding aspects of the job.”