by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
An unusual story emerged from the state of Idaho last week when authorities announced that a body discovered in a cave in 1979 had finally been identified - thanks to the rapidly advancing field of DNA research.
Buffalo Cave near Dubois, Idaho, had been used as part of the area's Civil Defense preparedness efforts in the 1950's. A family was exploring in the cave in 1979 searching and digging for Indian artifacts and arrowheads when they unearthed a male torso that had been stuck in a burlap bag and buried in a shallow grave. The corpse still had skin and was wearing clothes that had not completely rotted away. Some assumed that it had probably been in the cave ten years or less.
Twelve years later in 1991, and in the same cave, a young girl who was exploring came across a hand that was sticking out of the ground. When authorities began digging up the hand, they discovered the four missing limbs belonging to the torso in the burlap bag.
But the man's head has never been found, and the identity of the remainder of the body was never determined. This year authorities turned the investigation over to DNA researchers and professional genealogists, and last week a formal identification was finally made and announced to the public.
DNA identification in this case was particularly tricky because many of the people living in the area where the man had been found were descendants of the polygamous Mormon pioneers who had settled the area. DNA researchers narrowed their range of possibilities down to a few, and then professional family researchers began delving into family stories and histories and news accounts. Finally they came up with a man they considered to be the most likely possibility - and set out to find a descendant with whom they could compare DNA. An eighty-seven-year-old grandson in California was contacted and agreed to be tested.
And the torso in the bag turned out to be his grandfather!
The remains were those of Joseph Henry Loveless, the son of Mormon pioneers who had been born in Payson, Utah Territory, in 1870. Loveless had been divorced by his first wife for abandonment and lack of support for their son, and he had moved on to Idaho where he lived a life of small time crime, primarily bootlegging, and had a common-law wife with whom he had other children. He also had a history of escaping jail.
Loveless was arrested in May of 1916 for murdering his common-law wife with an axe, and one of his sons remarked at the time that "Papa never stayed in jail very long and he'll soon be out." He apparently had a metal saw concealed in his shoe and escaped a few days later - never to be seen alive again.
The sheriff of Clark County, Idaho, where all of this mayhem occurred is excited and pleased about finally being able to attach a name to the (majority of a) body that was found in Buffalo Cave, and he is now determined to identify the person who killed the escaped convict - although that person is obviously dead as well. (Now the working assumption is that Joseph Henry Loveless died in or around 1916, not long after escaping jail for the last time.)
Good luck with that investigation, Sheriff!
Citizen Journalist
An unusual story emerged from the state of Idaho last week when authorities announced that a body discovered in a cave in 1979 had finally been identified - thanks to the rapidly advancing field of DNA research.
Buffalo Cave near Dubois, Idaho, had been used as part of the area's Civil Defense preparedness efforts in the 1950's. A family was exploring in the cave in 1979 searching and digging for Indian artifacts and arrowheads when they unearthed a male torso that had been stuck in a burlap bag and buried in a shallow grave. The corpse still had skin and was wearing clothes that had not completely rotted away. Some assumed that it had probably been in the cave ten years or less.
Twelve years later in 1991, and in the same cave, a young girl who was exploring came across a hand that was sticking out of the ground. When authorities began digging up the hand, they discovered the four missing limbs belonging to the torso in the burlap bag.
But the man's head has never been found, and the identity of the remainder of the body was never determined. This year authorities turned the investigation over to DNA researchers and professional genealogists, and last week a formal identification was finally made and announced to the public.
DNA identification in this case was particularly tricky because many of the people living in the area where the man had been found were descendants of the polygamous Mormon pioneers who had settled the area. DNA researchers narrowed their range of possibilities down to a few, and then professional family researchers began delving into family stories and histories and news accounts. Finally they came up with a man they considered to be the most likely possibility - and set out to find a descendant with whom they could compare DNA. An eighty-seven-year-old grandson in California was contacted and agreed to be tested.
And the torso in the bag turned out to be his grandfather!
The remains were those of Joseph Henry Loveless, the son of Mormon pioneers who had been born in Payson, Utah Territory, in 1870. Loveless had been divorced by his first wife for abandonment and lack of support for their son, and he had moved on to Idaho where he lived a life of small time crime, primarily bootlegging, and had a common-law wife with whom he had other children. He also had a history of escaping jail.
Loveless was arrested in May of 1916 for murdering his common-law wife with an axe, and one of his sons remarked at the time that "Papa never stayed in jail very long and he'll soon be out." He apparently had a metal saw concealed in his shoe and escaped a few days later - never to be seen alive again.
The sheriff of Clark County, Idaho, where all of this mayhem occurred is excited and pleased about finally being able to attach a name to the (majority of a) body that was found in Buffalo Cave, and he is now determined to identify the person who killed the escaped convict - although that person is obviously dead as well. (Now the working assumption is that Joseph Henry Loveless died in or around 1916, not long after escaping jail for the last time.)
Good luck with that investigation, Sheriff!
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