photo by: Kansas Missing and Unsolved

Dean Morrison

UPDATED 3:50 P.M. MARCH 13, 2023

The identity of human remains found in September has been confirmed to be a Lawrence man who was last seen in April of 2022, according to a recently acquired police report.

The man, Dean Allen Morrison, 42, was reported missing on June 11, 2022, according to a report from the Lawrence Police Department. Morrison’s body was found on Sept 19, 2022.

Lawrence police responded to a report of human remains in a wooded area south of Bob Billings Parkway just east of K-10 highway around 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 19, 2022, according to a release from Lawrence police at the time. The remains were skeletal. The man who found the remains went to a nearby convenience store and called police. Foul play is not suspected, according to the release.

A GoFundMe page has been created by Morrison’s brother, Jason Morrison, asking for donations in support of a memorial service.

“I am not great with words here. He (Morrison) had a lot of friends and family that loved him dearly and have missed him tremendously. The last we had heard from him was April of 2022, we reported him missing around July of 2022. Around Sept. he was found in an advanced state of decomposition, the detective used my DNA to confirm and match to the body found that it was him,” the page said.

Morrison’s cause and manner of death were undetermined, according to an autopsy report from the Douglas County coroner’s office. He was positively identified using DNA in March of 2023.