Prisoner a puzzle for Utah officials, finally I.D.'d as New Mexico man

(CBS/AP) SALT LAKE CITY - For more than three weeks a mystery man believed to be in his 70s has been locked up in a Utah jail, refusing to give his name.

On Tuesday, authorities said they've finally got it figured out.

The graying, disheveled man with blue eyes and a scruffy face was booked into the Utah County Jail as "John Doe" on July 1 after being arrested for trespassing in the Provo Police Department parking garage, about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Since then, investigators have been publicizing his mug shot and reaching out to the media and public to figure out who he is. About 100 tips had led nowhere. Authorities even considered the man might have been a missing district attorney from Pennsylvania, but later ruled that out.

Another Pennsylvania prosecutor on Tuesday confirmed that authorities have determined the man is Phillip T. Beavers, from New Mexico.

Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said in an email to The Associated Press that the man's brother identified him. 

Miller's office had been involved in looking into whether the mystery man was in fact former Pennsylvania District Attorney Ray Gricar. Gricar disappeared in 2005 about nine months before he planned to retire as the top prosecutor in the central Pennsylvania county that is home to Penn State University's main campus in State College. He was declared legally dead Monday.

Earlier Tuesday, Utah County Sheriff's Lt. Dennis Harris said, "I think we know who this guy is now," Harris said. "I'm feeling pretty comfortable."

Beavers is being held on $1,200 cash bond for three misdemeanor charges of interfering with an investigation, failure to provide information to a police officer and criminal trespass.

He has been practically silent in jail, save for a few brief conversations with Harris and a deputy who have been trying to get him to talk. Authorities ran the man's fingerprints through a state database but came up with nothing.

Authorities initially said they didn't believe the man was from Utah or had been homeless long, if he was homeless at all. The man has just about a week's worth of facial hair but did appear disheveled and dirty when he was arrested.

"We've explored everything from A to Z," Harris said earlier, adding that they had not ruled out the possibility that the man might have been a registered sex offender somewhere or possibly wanted for a crime.