A man who went missing in 2004 and was later found dead in the East River has been buried in a pauper’s grave on Hart Island for 20 years due to a failure in the investigation, according to court papers.
The Disappearance of Rand Kandoria
Rand Kandoria, 43, an operations officer for Deutsche Bank, was reported missing on December 27, 2004, after his friend called the NYPD to report his disappearance. Kandoria, originally from the UK, had lived at 99 John Street in Manhattan, an area that now sees one-bedroom apartments listed for around $1 million.
His family, deeply concerned, filed a missing person report and stayed in constant contact with the NYPD. Despite their repeated inquiries, the family was reportedly told there were no updates on the case.
Body Found But Identity Not Established
Two months after Kandoria went missing, a body matching his description—male, in his early 40s, of north Indian descent—was discovered near Pier 11 in the East River, just half a mile from his home. However, investigators allegedly failed to match the body to Kandoria or check if the body’s fingerprints matched the missing man’s.
Instead of conducting proper identification checks, the city sent the unidentified body to Hart Island, New York’s burial ground for the unclaimed or indigent, where over a million people have been buried since its use as a “Potter’s Field” began.
The body, identified as “John Doe,” was buried in Grave No. 313 on the island.
Family’s Long Wait for Answers
The Kandoria family spent 20 years without knowing the fate of Rand. Despite their repeated attempts to get answers from the NYPD, they were left in the dark, unable to mourn or process their grief. In 2015, Rand’s father, Rai, passed away, still unaware of what had happened to his son.
In 2024, Rand’s brother, Sham Kandoria, hired private investigator Rosanna Licitra to help uncover the truth. They reached out to both the NYPD and the city Medical Examiner in January 2025, prompting a detective to make the shocking revelation that the body found in 2004 had been identified as Rand Kandoria.
Exhumation and Burial
In 2025, Rand’s remains were exhumed from Hart Island, and his brother arranged for his cremation. In August 2025, Sham traveled to New York to collect his brother’s ashes and returned them to the UK for a proper burial.
Finally, in February 2026, after 20 years of uncertainty, the Kandoria family was able to lay Rand to rest and find the closure they had long sought.
Similar Case: LaMont Dottin
This is not the first instance of the city mistakenly burying someone without properly investigating their identity. In a similar case, Queens College student LaMont Dottin, who went missing in 1995, was buried on Hart Island after his body was found and identified by the FBI. However, due to a lack of communication between the authorities, his body remained buried for three years before the mix-up was discovered.
