Mystery of ‘Pinnacle man’ solved 50 years after he was found frozen in cave

The ‘Pinnacle Man’ was born in Croydon and ended up dead in a Pennsylvania cave (Picture: Berks County Coroner’s Office)

The identity of a frozen corpse found near a popular US hiking trail nearly 50 years ago has been uncovered as a man of British origin.

Two hikers found the man’s frozen body on 16 January 1977 in a cave beneath the Pinnacle, a popular viewpoint along the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania.

A description of the victim – a 155-pound white male aged between 25 and 35 with blue eyes and reddish curly hair who stood between 5’10 and 5’11 – was released.

Post-mortem examinations found he died from an overdose of barbiturates, and, with no signs of foul play, his death was ruled a suicide.

But nobody came forward to identify him and the case went, erm, cold.

The man lay buried in a cemetery plot set aside for unmarked graves until 2019, when he was exhumed and examined by forensics experts.

Samples were sent onto specialists with a proven record of solving cold cases but they also hit a dead end.

This sketch of the victim released in 1977 didn’t help trace his identity

A breakthrough finally came earlier this month when a cold case detective found fingerprints taken from the body when it was originally autopsied and sent them to the FBI.

An FBI agent then matched the autopsy prints and matched them with prints taken from a man who was arrested for a misdemeanor in Colorado in 1975.

A local coroner on Tuesday revealed his identity as Nicolas Paul Grubb, a 27-year-old man based in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.

Croydon-born Nicky Grubb moved to Pennsylvania in his youth and did a stint in the National Guard

Known by his family as ‘Nicky’, he was born in Croydon, south London, in 1950.

His grandfather, a prominent evangelical leader, moved most of the family from England to Fort Washington in the 1950s.

Nicky and his parents followed at some point afterwards, and Nicky ended up joining the Pennsylvania Army National Guard before being discharged in 1971.

He was discharged from the army and a few years later was arrested for an unknown misdemeanor offence

Distant surviving relatives said Nicky’s disappearance was known in the family but had remained a mystery.

First cousin once removed Charles R. Grubb, 39, told local newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer: ‘I’ve always been kind of intrigued by it.

‘It was really interesting and intriguing to learn. That there was finally some culmination to his disappearance. To this mystery.’

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