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Daughter traces missing father back to 'Tower Bridge Hero' 30 years later

DNA samples from the John Doe and her grandmother identified her father as the match and the Tower Bridge hero.

A daughter, searching for missing father for 30 years, learned that he is the so-called "Tower Bridge Hero."

In 1987, a truck was traveling across the Tower Bridge when it went into the Sacramento River. At the time, police said the bridge tender was drunk and did not turn on safety lights or barriers when a boat passed underneath.

John Doe was named the hero for jumping into the Sacramento River, but he drowned. There were some possible ID's of the man, but they were all wrong.

The body was cremated in 1987, before any fingerprints were made.

The Yolo County Coroner's Office investigated the John Doe since his body was found on the Yolo County side of the Sacramento River. Deputy Coroner Laurel Weeks with the Yolo County Coroner's Office took over the case in 2005. Before the body was cremated, a blood sample was taken and transferred to a lab in Hayward, Calif.

Weeks put the profile of the John Doe into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System in 2011. There was no match, until Kristene Feldhaus started searching for answers of what happened to her father nearly 30 years ago. Around the time of the accident, Feldhaus said her father, James Miller, was wanted in Iowa.

"He allegedly robbed a bank," Feldhaus said. "I came under the impression as his daughter that he did do it because of him leaving."

After doing some research on her town, Feldhaus discovered NamUs, a national information and resource center for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases across the United States. She put in her father's information and found a possible match to Weeks' John Doe case. DNA samples from John Doe and Feldhaus' grandmother identified the man as Feldhaus' father and the "Tower Bridge Hero."

"It's a completely different scenario I could ever imagine," Feldhaus said. "It's great. I'm very happy. I'm happy he chose to put someone first and risk his life."

She said there are still so many questions.

"I have the answers, but I don't know if I'll ever have full closure just because there's a lot of what did dad do," Feldhaus said.

She's looking forward to going back home to Iowa and bringing her father back home.

"There's a lot I would like to know but for this part having dad with me is awesome," Feldhaus said. "It's amazing. I couldn't ask for a better ending."

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