Body found in southwest Lincoln confirmed as missing man Tyler Goodrich

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) — The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the body discovered in southwest Lincoln Saturday morning are the remains of 35-year-old Tyler Goodrich — the man who went missing from his home in November 2023.

Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said the human remains were found in a wooded area by a man walking his dog less than 1,000 yards from the home of Tyler Goodrich.

Houchin confirmed the area was searched in the first couple weeks of Tyler’s disappearance and that the body has been in the same location for over a year.

“It was searched by public volunteers. It was (searched) early on when we were doing that,” Houchin said. “It was probably within the first couple of weeks after all the volunteers got going.”

“It is wooded, sometimes if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for and making sure you have enough people out there,” Houchin said. “I’m sure you had to go through a bunch of trees and doing that, you could’ve just looked down because there was a branch and not seen where he was at.”

Officials are treating the death as suspicious but not as a homicide. The manner of death is still unclear, but authorities said an autopsy is scheduled for Monday.

Goodrich’s family met with investigators Saturday. His father, Lonnie Goodrich, knew then that the body they found is his son. “It’s Tyler. It’s Tyler. It’s Tyler. They were all his tattoos. Hair color was the same. It’s Tyler. He has been found.”

Investigators had few leads in the search for Tyler, other than a short surveillance video showing him running from the home.

“For sixteen and a half months I’ve prayed every night,” Lonnie said. ”I stood at my door, asking him to come up the driveway. I prayed that we would get information and, at least today, we got that one piece.”

On Monday, the family of Marshall Vogel, Tyler’s husband, shared a statement.