Sheriff credits podcast after 1975 cold case victim formerly known as 'Mr.

The unsolved case of a man known as “Mr.

Greenville County Sheriff Assigns True Crime Podcast – “Murder, Etc.” — for drawing attention to the case that dates back to 1975, when the remains of “Mr. X” were found by a hunter in the South Carolina town. The remains were “found wrapped in a sheet and smoking, indicating they had been set on fire,” the sheriff's department said in a statement Monday. The death was ruled a homicide as the man was subjected to blunt force trauma and strangulation. Police were unable to identify him despite “numerous outreach efforts over the years.”

Then, in 2020, Greenville Sheriff Hobart Lewis “retooled” the city's cold case unit to focus on reinvestigating cases with new technology. Since then, 11 cases have been resolved, the sheriff's department said.

The Cold Case Unit was able to identify the man known as “Mr. X” as Oscar James Nedd of White Plains, New York. Nedd was born in Georgia in April 1951 and later moved to New York to attend college, the department said.

The podcast “Murder, etc.” covered his case in a live episode in 2020.

Sheriff's Office investigators worked with the county coroner's office that same year to exhume the body from where it had been buried and sent some of the remains to the National Unidentified and Missing Persons System for testing DNA. A DNA profile was created for the victim in this database. In February 2024, the White Plains Police Department contacted investigators to say the profile matched Nedd's missing person case filed there.

Family members were contacted and investigators were able to confirm Nedd's identity.

“The tireless work and innovative approaches employed by our investigators brought closure to a case that remained mysterious for nearly five decades,” Lewis said in the press release. “Their determination to seek justice for the victims and their families is truly commendable. I would like to thank each member of our cold case unit for their hard work and commitment.

Nedd is believed to have been killed in New York, the sheriff's department said. CBS News affiliate WSPA reported that the remains were then transported to South Carolina. Authorities in White Plains are now investigating the homicide.