Written by by M / i: Staff | CNN
More than 37 years after Jimmy Hoffa vanished, Detroit’s FBI director said in an interview that authorities believe they have identified a possible lead in the disappearance of the legendary Teamsters boss.
If confirmed, the claim could potentially address one of the most mysterious cases in American history.
Dave Joyce said on Tuesday that a tipster contacted investigators, saying they had found a human skull at a property in Oakland County.
“I can’t get into the specifics of the tip, but we have confirmed that it is in fact a human skull that matches a profile of what we believe is Jimmy Hoffa’s,” Joyce said.
The tipster told investigators they had found the skull on a site near where the iconic union leader’s 1975 van was discovered, Joyce said.
The man said he was approached by someone in the woods in Oakland County and asked if he’d heard about Hoffa.
The man responded that he thought Hoffa may have been killed there, and the tipster then said he had “recently found something that’s pretty significant.”
Detroit FBI Director Dave Joyce said that a tipster approached investigators with what he called a “real important lead.”
The tipster then handed the person the skull and another piece of what he said was human bone, Joyce said.
“The people that were with him determined that both of those pieces were human bone,” Joyce said.
FBI agents removed the human bone from the property on Saturday. Joyce said that it was moved back to their Michigan headquarters on Monday.
No arrests have been made in the decades-old case, although Joyce would not say whether the tipster had been arrested or spoken to authorities.
The FBI is interested in interviewing the tipster, Joyce said.
“We are following up with that person,” he said.
Efforts by CNN to reach out to Joyce on Monday were unsuccessful.
No reports of Hoffa’s disappearance have been independently confirmed since he was last seen on July 30, 1975, in Oakland County, Michigan. According to investigators, Hoffa disappeared while meeting with members of a mob-affiliated crew.
Following Hoffa’s disappearance, the FBI joined a search effort in a field in nearby Windsor, Michigan, but it ended without locating the missing man.
But some of Hoffa’s supporters have long claimed that he is still alive. In 2007, New York Mets co-owner Fred Wilpon said he believed Hoffa was secretly living under an assumed name in Florida.
Michigan’s Attorney General Mike Cox said in 2017 that he believed Hoffa was dead.