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Kevin Graves Found: Remains near Electric Forest site confirmed as missing festivalgoer

Kevin Graves
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ROTHBURY, Mich. — Michigan State Police (MSP) confirmed Thursday that the human remains discovered this week in Rothbury, near the area where the annual Electric Forest Music and Art Festival unfolds, have been positively identified as Kevin Graves.

Graves was identified via dental record comparisons, according to MSP.

FOX 17 spoke with Kevin's father, Gary Graves, minutes after police made the announcement. He tells us, "Thanks to everybody for the support they gave us and the prayers they've given us and all the help they gave us. ... Not much more we can say except that at least now we can have a little peace."

While they say the cause of death has yet to be determined, police said Thursday “there are no indications of foul play” at this time.

In a social media post, they said, “Please keep the family and friends of Kevin Graves in your thoughts during this difficult time.”

The remains were found in a wooded area near the Double JJ Resort off Water Rroad, near Clay Road, on Dec. 30, 2024.

Additional evidence was collected the following day by investigators with MSP.

They announced at the time that “a positive identification of the remains cannot be made at this time pending autopsy results and further investigation.”

Graves, 28, was last seen at the 2018 Electric Forest Festival, after getting into a verbal altercation with his girlfriend.

He reportedly told her that he was going to walk back to their campsite, but was never seen or heard from again.

Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine helped recover and identify the remains.

Kevin's family had been searching for answers for nearly seven years, tirelessly passing out flyers in and around the festival grounds every summer.

In 2023, they created a billboard near the festival grounds, pleading for anyone with information to come forward.

Speaking with FOX 17 about the billboard, Kevin’s father, Gary Graves, told FOX 17 his son “had a heart of gold. He would do anything for anybody, you know; all of his friends ... everybody loved him.

“He was very knowledgeable on things he had to do. He was a mechanic, you know, and taught him how to work on vehicles. He loved doing that kind of work. He could do anything. He could do construction work, building work. He was just, like, a handy guy.”

A volunteer search and rescue team spent time looking for Kevin about two weeks after he initially went missing in 2018.

They searched some of the wooded area around the festival grounds, but were unable to find anything of note.

One of the experienced search and rescue specialists on site in 2018 spoke with FOX 17 this week about the unique difficulties they faced in their search for Kevin.

Remains near Electric Forest site confirmed as missing festivalgoer

“It was the most difficult search I've ever been on for multiple reasons,” the man who spoke on the condition of anonymity explained.

“It's marsh land like you've never seen before; I have never encountered something like that.”

He never believed any of the theories floating around the internet over the years, that Kevin left the grounds with a cult, or that he had simply decided to go “off the grid.”

“I thought it was 100% near certain he was there," he said.

Sheriff Michael Bouchard of Oakland County, where Graves was from, says, “Now that we have positive identification of the remains at least the family has some closure on where he is and now hopefully the next steps can determine what happened.”

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