Identified! WI - Jackson Co., WhtMale Skeletal UP12415, in woods, 28-52, August '78 - Dennis Regan McConn

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Identified as Dennis R. McConn of Kenosha, born July 27, 1947 (aged 29) who was reported missing.

Human remains found four decades ago in Jackson County identified as Kenosha man

EDIT: As per some Ancestry records, it appears he may have been a railway worker in the late 1960s. Strangely there is a SSDI Death claim for him made in Jan 1977.
According to another article he was reported missing in 1977.
As far as I understand in some cases, a missing person can be declared deceased (as in the case of James Freund) if, for example, this person stops paying child support.
 
According to another article he was reported missing in 1977.
As far as I understand in some cases, a missing person can be declared deceased (as in the case of James Freund) if, for example, this person stops paying child support.

Based on other cases I've followed, I think you're right--if they've been missing and no financial activity like child support, no SS index activity, drivers license not renewed, no contact etc. for a certain number of years, usually seven. The date of death will usually be the date of disappearance. In some cases when there's a strong presumption of death (in a plane crash, swept away by a flood) it might take less time.
 
I also found that photo but pretty sure the name was "McCann" rather than "McConn" (a transcription/indexing error) so not sure that is the correct person.
He was definitely McConn, may be it is a typo on Ancestry?
Based on other cases I've followed, I think you're right--if they've been missing and no financial activity like child support, no SS index activity, drivers license not renewed, no contact etc. for a certain number of years, usually seven. The date of death will usually be the date of disappearance. In some cases when there's a strong presumption of death (in a plane crash, swept away by a flood) it might take less time.
Also he is listed as preceding his mother in death in his mother’s obituary, she died in 2000. So the family suspected that something bad has happened to him.
 
He was definitely McConn, may be it is a typo on Ancestry?
Sorry, I realize I was unclear - I had meant that the original yearbook that photo comes from has the name listed as "McCann", not McConn (the font used uses the 'a' that can be confused for an 'o' so that is likely how it came to be indexed under McConn).

Also, some further newspaper research seems to suggest that he was divorced "officially" in January 1978, a year after he was seemingly declared deceased.
 
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