Vermont, Connecticut State Police identify human remains connected to 2001 missing persons case

STATE OF VERMONT

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

VERMONT STATE POLICE

and

CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE

Vermont, Connecticut State Police identify human remains connected to 2001 missing persons case

HARTLAND, Vermont (Monday, May 4, 2026) — The Vermont State Police has received confirmation that human remains found in 2006 in Connecticut are those of a man who went missing while fishing in Vermont five years earlier.

Vermont residents Brian Cranfield, 37, of Weathersfield and Terry Brinegar, 44, of Mount Holly were fishing together April 9, 2001, on a boat at Sumner Falls in Hartland when the vessel overturned. Both men were presumed drowned. Brinegar’s body was found April 24, 2001, at the Bellows Falls Dam, but Cranfield’s remains could not be located.

In October 2006, the Connecticut State Police recovered a human skull along the Connecticut River in the town of Haddam. Following DNA testing in summer 2025 by the Connecticut Chief State Medical Examiner’s Office, authorities sent material from the skull to Othram, a Texas business that uses DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy to assist police investigations by identifying victims, locating missing persons, and uncovering perpetrators of crime.

The Connecticut State Police obtained a DNA sample from Cranfield’s brother and sent the sample to Othram for comparison. This past weekend, Othram notified CSP the sample matched the skull discovered in 2006, providing confirmation of Cranfield’s identity. CSP subsequently informed the Vermont State Police of the match.

This incident is not considered suspicious, and the Vermont State Police case is now closed.

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