Human remains recovered on Sunday, Oct. 4 in the Jamaica area of upper Middlesex County have been identified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner as 61-year-old Nicholas Dieter, reported Middlesex Sheriff Chris Easter, adding the cause of death has not been determined as of Tuesday.
According to Sheriff Easter, Dieter was last seen by his family during the overnight hours of Sunday, Sept. 20, into Monday, Sept. 21. He was reported missing to the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 24, which conducted its first search that day. Additional searches and investigative efforts continued throughout the weekend and into Monday, Sept. 28.
On Tuesday, Sept. 29, plans were made to bring together additional local, state, and regional resources for a larger coordinated search operation. On Wednesday, Sept. 30, the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office conducted an organized multi-agency search involving personnel from the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM), Virginia State Police (VSP), the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), as well as trained search-and-rescue personnel with K-9 teams, including DOGS-East Inc. (DOGS-East), Tidewater Search and Rescue (TSAR), K-9 Alert, and SARTI. Drones and other specialized search resources were used.
The remains were not found during the Sept. 30 search, but were located by a citizen on Oct. 4 in the general area near Dieter’s residence, said Sheriff Easter.
Notified
Sheriff Easter said, “Dieter’s father was personally notified of the discovery well before any information was released publicly. Given the circumstances, we believed he deserved to hear about this significant development directly from the sheriff’s office rather than through social media, news coverage, rumors, or community discussion.”
