Help Lay Anthony Angelli Rea to Rest

For more than three decades, he was only known as the Essex County John Doe, a teenager whose remains were found on November 28, 1992, in the marsh beside I-95 south in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

This year, thanks to the work of Othram Laboratories and genetic genealogy, we finally have his name: Anthony Angelli Rea of Malden, Massachusetts.

Anthony’s short life was marked by hardship and tragedy. His family was deeply affected by Huntington’s Disease, a fatal neurological condition that led to his separation from his mother at a young age. He was placed into his father’s custody, where he endured experiences that no child should ever face. After his father’s arrest, Anthony and his brother Darren entered the foster care system, and Anthony eventually was sent to live at the Harbor School in Newbury, Massachusetts.

At just 16 years old, Anthony disappeared. Due to multiple systemic failures, a formal missing persons report was not filed, and his family was consistently told that he had run away. His brother Darren—who passed away at 30 from Huntington’s disease—would say it was good that Anthony had gotten away, imagining him safe with a kind family who treated him with more care than the system ever did.

When his skeletal remains were discovered in 1992, little could be documented beyond his Levi’s jean pockets and the Reebok high-top sneakers he was wearing. For more than three decades, his family lived without answers—never knowing that the brother Darren had hoped was safe and with a kind family was, in reality, the boy lying unidentified in a marsh. His Aunt Carolann still remembers the last time she saw him, at Christmastime shortly before his disappearance, a memory that now carries the weight of decades without answers.

Today, Carolann is Anthony’s only surviving relative. Having already laid her other family members to rest due to Huntington’s, she now faces the heartbreaking responsibility of claiming and settling her nephew, “Tony”—the blonde-haired, green-eyed boy she remembers as being “very kind, and very sweet,” but also “very shy.” Living out of state, she hopes to have Tony’s remains sent to her so that, at last, he can rest in peace.

While we may never know what led Anthony to the side of I-95 or the circumstances surrounding his untimely death, what we can do is give him dignity in death. We can control this part of his story by helping him finally be claimed and laid to rest.

We are asking for your help to honor Anthony’s memory and fulfill his Aunt’s wish. Every donation—no matter the size—brings us one step closer to closing this 33-year chapter and giving Anthony the peace he has always deserved.

Please consider donating or sharing this campaign. Together, we can help lay Anthony to rest—not as a John Doe, but as the beloved son, brother, and nephew he always was.