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Missing Mouseketeer Dennis Day is dead, police say, and his body was found months ago

Posted at 12:20 PM, Jun 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-06-08 12:20:28-04

A body that was found in an Oregon home two months ago has been identified as that of long-missing Dennis Day, one of the original members of "The Mickey Mouse Club" TV show from the 1950s, police said.

The remains of Day, 76, were found April 4 at his house in the southern Oregon city of Phoenix, but investigators weren't confident enough to identify the corpse until Thursday, Oregon State Police said.

Because of the corpse's condition, investigators couldn't use dental records or DNA to identify it, and instead decided Thursday that the remains were Day's through "investigation, evidence and other information," police said in a statement.

His death is under investigation, state police said.

Day was reported missing in mid-July by his husband, who suffers memory loss and was in a hospital at the time, The Oregonian has reported.

The husband, according to a missing person's poster on a Facebook site set up to find Day, had asked someone to call police so he could report Dennis missing because he hadn't visited the hospital in several weeks.

It's not immediately clear why the remains weren't found in the home until April. Police haven't said where the body was located in the house.

A post Thursday on the "Help Us Find Dennis Day" Facebook page , which is run by his family, acknowledged that police identified the remains as Day's.

"Our family is truly thankful to the Oregon State Police for helping to bring closure to our family so that we can finally lay Dennis to rest," the post reads.

Day was one of the first cast members of "The Mickey Mouse Club," the 1950s television variety show aimed at children. He appeared on the show's first two seasons, according to a website dedicated to the program.