NEW YORK—A 75-year-old New York City man pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 1976 killing of a World War I veteran whose dismembered remains were found in 2019.
Martin Motta’s guilty plea Tuesday in the death of George Seitz represented the first successful use of genetic genealogy by any of the city’s prosecutors, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. Seitz had been a customer at the Queens barbershop where Motta worked.
“No matter how much time has passed, we will use every tool at our disposal to achieve justice,” Katz said in a news release.
The disappearance of Seitz, a World War I veteran who was then 81 years old, remained a mystery for decades until a tipster led police to a backyard where dismembered body parts were buried under concrete….