Detectives ID men’s remains, bringing closure to two Florida Keys cold cases
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office detectives and state investigators identified the remains of two men this month, closing separate cold cases that had gone unsolved for years in the Florida Keys, the agency said Thursday.
One of the men, 77-year-old James Donald Schlake, was one of the 14 people who were killed in the Keys during Hurricane Irma.
His body remained unidentified ever since rescuers found it in a debris pile near Second Street on Big Pine Key on Sept. 14, 2017, four days after the Category 4 storm slammed into the Keys, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the other agency working on the cases with the sheriff’s office.
The Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office determined at the time that Schlake drowned, but his body was in such a state of decomposition that officials could not immediately identify him, said Adam Linhardt, spokesman for the sheriff’s office.
Sheriff’s office detectives sent Schlake’s DNA to the FDLE’s genetic genealogy lab, which worked with a company called Othram Inc., to identify him, Linhardt said.
Scientists at Othram conducted advanced DNA sequencing, and in December 2025, identified potential genetic relatives. Investigators then confirmed the remains were Schlake’s and contacted his family, Linhardt said.
The other man whose identity was confirmed this month was Igor Kolomiets. His body was found on April 9. 2014, in a unit at the Breezy Pines RV Estates, also in Big Pine Key, according to the sheriff’s office.
Kolomiets’ case was even more difficult to solve than Schlake’s, according to the sheriff’s office.
The Medical Examiner’s Office was never able to conclude his cause of death. And, because of inconsistencies with immigration records involving people who share his name, the sheriff’s office could not notify his relatives and thus classified him as unidentified, Linhardt said.
Kolomiets, who was 52, was born in Russia, but multiple men with his name were known to have entered the United States in the years preceding his death.
In April 2025, the FDLE submitted his fingerprints to FBI, Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection databases, all of which came back with no hits, Linhardt said.
Monroe County records show Kolomiets having traffic infractions in the Keys going back to May 2001.
Detectives found records that indicated his last entry into the U.S. was on Oct. 17, 1997, through Miami, according to the sheriff’s office. They were able to find immigration and Florida driver’s license records listing addresses to a man named Igor Kolomiets in Big Pine Key and Key West, Linhardt said.
“The Florida driver license transaction date of November 4, 1997, and the license photograph depict a white male with straight dirty-blonde hair, consistent with the medical examiner’s description,” Linhardt said.
Using this license information, detectives also found records showing the same Igor Kolomiets having run-ins in Broward County in 1998 and an incident at the Winn-DIxie in Big Pine Key with a deputy taking him back to Breezy Pines RV Estates. They concluded this was the man they had been trying to identify all these years.
“I want to thank the hard work by the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office and the FDLE for providing closure to the families in these two cases,” Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a statement. “Even when cases go cold, we remain committed to providing justice and solace to those affected.”
