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Bones ID’ed as those of University of Michigan student whose plane crashed

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SAGINAW, Mich. – Human bones found in central Michigan are those of a pilot who apparently leapt from his plane in mid-flight, authorities said Thursday.

The bones discovered Sept. 9, 2018, in Chapin Township have been positively identified as those of 27-year-old Xin Rong, a University of Michigan doctoral student who disappeared while flying a rented Cessna on March 15, 2017, the Saginaw County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.

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The plane had left Ann Arbor and was bound for Harbor Springs in northern Michigan. The plane apparently ran out of fuel and crashed in a wooded area near Marathon, Ontario, north of the Upper Peninsula.

The partially clothed bones were found by a man on his property. After a check of missing person cases turned up Rong, his dental records were sent to a forensic anthropologist who positively identified the bones as his, authorities said.


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