ROTHBURY, Mich. — Forensic anthropologists have positively identified a body found earlier this week as belonging to Kevin Graves, who was reported missing over six years ago.
On Monday, Dec. 30 Michigan State Police (MSP) responded to Rothbury for a body that had been found bordering the campsites of the Electric Forest music festival.
13 ON YOUR SIDE spoke with a neighbor, Jamie Bishop, on Wednesday. She said that on Monday and Tuesday, Michigan State Police vehicles were at her neighbor’s home across the street. Tuesday night, Michigan State Police confirmed they had found a body in a wooded area.
Forensic anthropologists with the Western Michigan University (WMU) Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine were called in to help. The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office also assisted in the investigation.
Police weren’t able to immediately confirm the remains were Kevin Graves, but WMU’s team of forensic anthropologists confirmed his identity through dental records.
Authorities said they won’t know the cause of death for several months. However, at this time they’ve found no signs of foul play.
Kevin went missing from the Electric Forest festival in July of 2018. It was his first time attending the annual event.
He had been attending with his girlfriend, and the two had allegedly had an argument on the last day of the festival. After that, he went to return to his tent in the campsite area. However, he was not found there.
Kevin’s father, Gary Graves told 13 ON YOUR SIDE just weeks after his son disappeared that he had received unclear information about what had happened to his son.
One person had told him that his son had been high on drugs and had been in the first aid tent before being kicked out.
The day Kevin went missing he had one last communication with his dad, where he had sent him a text promising to pay back some money his dad had loaned him.
In the weeks following Kevin’s disappearance search parties were dispatched to walk the 1,000 acre facility, Double JJ Resort, where the festival is held annually.
As time went on and Kevin was not found, his family held on to hope that he would be found.
The search was extended internationally as people who enjoy music festivals will sometimes travel to Europe where the music scene is larger.
There was even hope on the one year anniversary of his disappearance that he may return to Electric Forest.
That hope remained year after year, as the family returned to the festival to pass out fliers in hopes of finding any information about where Kevin might have been.
In 2022, the festival asked the family to leave the festival grounds because they felt they were causing “bad PR,” according to Gary.
“Myself, I feel he’s somewhere out there in that forest somewhere,” said Gary in a 2022 interview with 13 ON YOUR SIDE. “I think he’s buried.”
More than six years later, Gary was right that Kevin was in those woods, and now the family can hopefully begin to find some closure.
“Now that we have positive identification of the remains at least the family has some closure on where he is and now hopefully the next steps can determine what happened,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.
