I finally found out what happened to the man, sadly after Dad had died. Dad grew up never knowing that side of the family, he only showed up once when he was a teenager, and Dad only learned why I had red hair when he went to his paternal grandmother's funeral thinking he might be there.
He'd actually cared and wanted answers. I wish I'd been able to provide them to him in life. Dad knew enough from hearing things from his mother, that one visit, and meeting his extended family to think his father was involved in some kind of criminal activity. He eventually assumed the reason he never showed up in the Social Security Death Index and no PI could locate him was that he was "wearing concrete boots somewhere" for screwing up.
Turns out dude was definitely involved in some kind of criminal activity, identity theft was his life. And he *did* screw up and was hiding until his death.
The US Marshals had seen the report I made of an "unnaccounted likely dead person due to age -- not in death index -- want to make sure he wasn't unclaimed in a morgue", and because interviews with his only living sister by police once they took my report indicated he'd stolen his brother's identity and used it for several years, and took DNA to rule him out as a rather notorious unidentified decedent involved in identity theft.
It wasn't that guy, but while waiting for the DNA the Marshal had dug up federal information the state police couldn't. He'd kept sporadic contact with his blood family for favors or money, but not been heard from by any family member after a material witness warrant was issued for him on a case out of California. He'd told everyone he'd been in a completely different geographical area -- Chicago -- at the last time he made contact, but there's no evidence he ever lived there under any of his identities.
He finally resumed use of his own social security number but a different name when he had medical issues, along with a slightly different date of birth. The case in Cali was over, but he still never made family contact. He also had an unusual issue -- had somehow experienced a non-medical amputation of his hand that had been treated by an ER after claiming that there was an "accident" -- prior to the time of his death, in Texas.
Since the police and PI were searching by name, and apparently not by SSN, they never found anything. The Federal access to social security work records a US Marshal has when investigating identity theft was the only way we'd have ever known.
I'm not going to bother moving him to NC, but will probably set up a cenotaph for him in the family cemetery now that we know.
For Dad.
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old age I know that that will always be a comfort to me no matter what lies ahead. I am one very grateful parent.
