Construction crews working to clear grounds for the Marley Station Mall in April 1985 made a gruesome discovery.
Human remains inside a metal trashcan.
The Office of the Medical Examiner was able to tell that the man was murdered.
But it would take nearly 3 and a half decades for police to identify the victim.
In 2019, the Anne Arundel County Police Department announced that using DNA, the victim was identified as Roger Hearne Kelso.
His family had last seen him in 1962. It had been nearly 6 decades since they'd heard any news of him.
"What could we do? We waited year after year, Mother waited year after year," said his younger sister.
Detectives believe he was murdered around 1963.
We spoke to his sister, Mary Ellen Huffman, when the identification was made public.
"We'd always hold out hope," she told WMAR-2 News in 2019.
He told his family he was leaving, about a year after he graduated high school. He never told them where he was going.
"When he left, he said goodbye to me, I saw him leave, he had books under his arm and he was hopeful, he was peaceful, and out of respect for him, I didn't ask him details," Huffman said.
Relatives became concerned when he didn't show up to a family gathering a year later.
If you have any information, which could help police you can call the homicide unit at 410-877-3943 or you can call Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP.
You can also reach out to Anne Arundel County Police Cold Case Unit at 410-222-4731.
