An Idaho State University professor is raising funds in hopes new DNA testing will lead to answers in a 40-year-old eastern Idaho murder mystery.
Professor Amy Michael, Ph.D., and the Clark County Sheriff's Office hope the testing can shed light on the mystery of how a mummified human torso ended up in Buffalo Cave, also known as the Civil Defense Cave, near the Montana border.
The mystery began in 1979 when a family searching for arrowheads came upon a male torso. The arms and legs were found 12 years later, but the head has never been located.
All of the body parts were mummified and wrapped in burlap.
Clark County Chief Deputy John Clements said cuts on the corpse indicate someone dismembered the body with a saw.
Identifying the remains has stumped anthropologists and forensic scientists nationwide. Michael, a former ISU anthropology researcher who now works at the University of New Hampshire, said the bones from Buffalo Cave case have been studied at the Smithsonian and the FBI and are now kept by ISU, often used to help teach anthropology students.
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Michael hopes new forensic DNA testing can help identify the John Doe. The new tests involve the same testing that has solved cold cases nationwide, including the
Angie Dodge murder. Michael has been working with DNA Doe Project, an organization that raises funds to identify John and Jane Does. DNA Doe Project would extract the genetic material from the bones
"Using autosomal DNA comparison, which is what is used by forensic genealogists, a file can be uploaded to GEDmatch that will produce a list of potentially hundreds of cousins with which we can build an extensive family tree," said Anthony Redgrave, the researcher in charge of the Clark County case at DNA Doe Project. "By triangulating segments of matching DNA to common ancestors, we can determine how all of these cousins are related to the unidentified person, and home in on the family group where we may find our John Doe."
Read more:
Researchers seek help solving 1970s cold case murder
