The body discovered in a shallow grave in Hopkinton is that of a missing British man, state police confirmed yesterday afternoon.
The state medical examiner's office identified the body of Adrian Exley, 32, of London, through dental records, state police said, but it has yet to determine his cause of death.
Lynn, Mass., authorities said yesterday they have been investigating Exley's disappearance for several weeks.
Even before the identity was confirmed, Lynn police said they believed that the body recovered Tuesday morning in a secluded, wooded area in the Rockville Management Area was Exley's.
Exley arrived at Boston's Logan International Airport on April 20. He told his family he was planning to spend a week in the Boston area visiting Gary Leblanc, 48, of Lynn, who he had met on the Internet.
Photos of Exley and a personal profile were posted on a Web site for men interested in wearing rubber and latex clothes and practicing breath restriction during sexual encounters, according to The Daily Item, a Lynn newspaper.
Exley did not make his return flight to England in April, nor did he contact friends or family, according to Lynn police, who began investigating his disappearance in late April. Detectives soon learned that Exley had not been using his bank accounts, credit cards, cell phone or e-mail.
As part of their investigation into Exley's whereabouts, authorities searched Leblanc's Lynn home last Thursday, producing several garbage bags full of evidence.
The next day, Leblanc was found dead outside a vehicle in a Claremont, N.H., Wal-Mart parking lot, an apparent suicide.
Authorities then discovered a suicide note, which led them to the wooded area in Rhode Island.
On Monday night, Massachusetts State Police asked Rhode Island authorities to search the rural Rockville area, giving them instructions on where to look.
Yesterday morning, Rhode Island police dug up the body from a shallow grave about 75 feet off a dirt road, in an area not far from Camp Yawgoog, a Boy Scout summer camp.
There were two large rocks near the grave that helped the police identify the site, and dogs confirmed a body was buried there, Rhode Island State Police Capt. Stephen Lynch said.
Yesterday afternoon, a hole 3 feet long by 2 feet wide could be seen at the site, next to a large boulder on top of a smaller boulder.
Lynch would not comment on whether police suspected foul play led to Exley's death or where the police think he died.
The investigation into Exley's death is continuing with authorities in Massachusetts and the medical examiner's office, state police said.
With reports from Journal staff writer Katie Mulvaney and the Associated Press
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