Tragedy as dismembered body found stuffed in plastic bags is identified as New York stockbroker-turned-adventurer who disappeared while riding a motorcycle through Mexico
- DNA tests identified the decomposed remains as those of Harry Devert, a 32-year-old stock trader from Pelham, New York
- State prosecutors turned the case over to federal prosecutors, suggesting organized crime played a role in his death
- Devert had planned a trip from New York to the tip of South America with a stop-over at the World Cup in Brazil, but he never made it
Mexican authorities said Thursday that genetic testing had confirmed that human remains found near a Pacific Coast beach town were those of a New York man who vanished while riding his motorcycle to Brazil for the World Cup.
The badly decomposed remains that were discovered last week near the Pacific beach resort of Zihuatanejo were identified as Harry Devert by DNA tests, according to a spokesman for the Guerrero state prosecutors office.
Devert worked as a stock trader and said on his website that he had spent the last five years traveling. He had planned to ride across Mexico and Central America to reach Brazil in time for the recently concluded soccer World Cup.
Adventurer: Harry Devert on the motorbike he bought to drive across Mexico. He vanished in the dangerous Michoacan state. A body found next to his abandoned Kawasake has now been ID'd as the 32-year-old New Yorker's
He had last communicated with his girlfriend on Jan. 25 as he traveled to Zihuatanejo, saying military troops had escorted him out of a dangerous area, according to a Facebook page set up by his friends.
Devert had been traveling through rural areas of western Mexico where drug gangs control vast swathes of territory.
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Devert, who held both French and U.S. citizenship, was an adventurer who had already spent five years traveling through Europe and South Asia, keeping friends and followers apprised of his wanderings on anewyorkertravels.com.
One blog post begins like this: 'I’m the owner of a big smile and a broad taste for adventure.'
He’d visited a monarch butterfly reserve in Michoacan state, home to a powerful organized crime group, and was headed to a beach on the Pacific coast where the final scene in the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption was filmed.
The beach is in adjacent Guerrero state.
Gave it up: Devert left behind the rarefied New York stock trading world to travel. His body was found in two separate plastic bags on a Pacific Coast beach in Mexico
Big plans: The Pelham man quit his job in order to follow this route through America, which was posted on his travel blog
Risks: Devert was a seasoned adventurer who had previously traveled around the world for years
A statement from the Guerrero office of public security said authorities found Devert's abandoned motorcycle along a dirt road leading to La Majahua beach in the township of Union Isidoro Montes de Oca.
The statement said authorities also found '10 packages of what appeared to be narcotics (marijuana and cocaine)' near the motorbike and body.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said issued a brief statement: 'We are aware of the news reports that indicate a motorcycle and human remains were discovered in the state of Guerrero near the town of Lagunillas and are working closely with the authorities to get more information.'
Devert’s mother provided a DNA sample that authorities compared to bone scrapings from the corpse.
A sudden break has come in the case of missing New Yorker Harry Devert, an adventurer who vanished in Mexico
Harry Devert went missing after starting a lengthy road trip on a motorcycle that would take him across the U.S. and through parts of Central and South America
Campaign: Mr Devert left a comfortable life in New York for a transcontinental motorcycle journey, only to go missing January 25
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