Remains found in car dredged from Mississippi are those of man who vanished in 1967

Officials have confirmed the human remains recovered from the Mississippi River in August are a match to Roy Benn, who went missing from central Minnesota nearly six decades ago.

The Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office identified the remains using familial DNA collected about seven years ago when the Benton County Sheriff’s Office conducted a review of the case, according to Sheriff Troy Heck.

Officials at the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office continue to work to determine the cause and manner of Benn’s death, Heck said.

Benn, a widower who lived in Sauk Rapids, was 59 when he vanished in September 1967.

He owned an appliance repair store in St. Cloud and had purchased a 12-unit apartment building in Sauk Rapids about six weeks before he went missing.

Reports from the time say Benn was last seen the evening of Sept. 24, 1967, at the popular King’s Supper Club wearing a dark suit with a red tie, a white French-cuffed shirt and gold and pearl cufflinks.

It was later determined he was last seen at about 4 a.m. the next day, eating breakfast at a café attached to a gas station on the east side of the Mississippi River in Sartell.

It was estimated Benn could have been carrying $5,000, equivalent to about $48,000 today.

Acquaintances called Benn “comfortably well off” with “no unhappy life or debts to walk away from,” according to a 1975 story in the St. Cloud Times. “People who knew him said that he always carried a substantial amount of money. When he made a purchase, he always paid cash in full, and in bars he frequently bought rounds of drinks for his friends.”

For decades, authorities followed tips about Benn’s disappearance, which led to fruitless searches in central Minnesota quarries and ditches.

Then, on Aug. 9, Watkins resident Brody Loch stumbled upon what looked like a vehicle about 24 feet below on the bottom of the Mississippi River. It was his first time fishing with his new Garmin forward-facing sonar model, he said.

Loch returned to the spot, just north of the Sartell dam and close to the western shore of the river, on Sunday morning to get a second look. He then reported it to the police.