Press Release

NCSO Reports Recovered Body in Lower Niagara River, Body Identified as Missing Chinese Tourist from 2019

WNYObserver
INCIDENT TYPE: RECOVERED BODY-UPDATE
LOCATION: LOWER NIAGARA RIVER 
MUNICIPALITY: Town of Porter
DATE/TIME: 6/27/2020 at 1327 hours
INFORMATION:
On June 27th, 2020 at 1:27 p.m., the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center received a call from a citizen reporting a possible body in the lower Niagara River along the coastline of a residence in the area of 3719 Lower River Road, in Youngstown, N.Y.

A Niagara County Sheriff’s Office Marine Patrol Unit, with the assistance of the United States Coast Guard, secured the deceased unknown female and brought her ashore at Coast Guard Station Niagara in Youngstown. Coroner Laura Sweeney-Goodlander secured the body.

The Niagara County Sheriff’s Criminal Investigative Bureau responded and is continuing to investigate.   

UPDATE: As the investigation continued, it was determined  from evidence secured by Investigator Brian Schell that the deceased female was possibly the subject of a missing  person investigation being conducted by Niagara Regional  Police Service in Ontario, Canada. The missing person was  from China.

Officers from that agency collected a DNA sample from a family member along with a sample from the remains recovered in the Niagara River. Those samples were submitted into the National Missing Persons DNA Program  (NMPDP) in Canada. On February 10, 2021 an DNA match was  made and the deceased female was positively identified as Jie YU of China. The 25 year-old woman was reported  missing to the Niagara Regional Police Service after being observed going over the falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario on December 10, 2019. 
 
This investigation was an example of terrific international law enforcement collaboration between two countries that resulted in answers for a grieving family in China.