Credit: DDP
Three years after a jawbone was found on the banks of the Scioto River, the Ross County Coroner’s Office has closed the case thanks to the work of the DNA Doe Project. In a surprising twist, DNA Doe Project researchers were able to determine that the jawbone belonged to one of a group of brothers, all of whom were born over 150 years ago.
On July 30, 2022, a man and his children were walking near a boat ramp alongside the Scioto River in Yoctangee Park in Chillicothe, Ohio, when they discovered a jawbone. No other bones or remains were located in the area. The jawbone, which did contain some teeth, was confirmed to belong to an adult man, but no other information related to his age or ethnicity could be ascertained.
The Ross County Coroner’s Office brought the case to the DNA Doe Project, whose expert investigative genetic genealogists volunteer their time to identify John and Jane Does. By January 2024, a DNA profile had been generated from a tooth and uploaded to GEDmatch. The results, however, suggested that this may not have been a recent death.
The case was assigned to the DNA Doe Project’s 2024 spring practicum program, in which six participants worked under the supervision of experienced team leaders to learn and practice the techniques used by the DNA Doe Project on an actual case. By the end of this program, the team working on the case had determined that the John Doe was likely a son of Salem Friend (1828-1917) and Mary Miller (1832-1918), a couple who’d both spent their entire lives living in Ohio. After the practicum ended, investigative genetic genealogists confirmed the findings.
“This was certainly an unusual case, which presented a different set of genealogical challenges,” said team co-leader, Rebecca Somerhalder. “But these challenges made it the perfect case for the practicum students to learn from, and their hard work contributed significantly to the eventual resolution of this case.”
Salem and Mary had five sons who lived till adulthood, but all of these men had death certificates. While it was clear that one of these five sons had to be Yoctangee Park John Doe, it appeared that the jawbone had likely been somehow disinterred after burial. None of the men died or were buried in Ross County, and it remains unclear as to how the jawbone ended up in the Scioto River.
Further DNA testing tentatively ruled out three of the brothers as candidates, which left two remaining men - Jacob and Amos Friend. Jacob Friend was born in 1852 and died in 1923 at the age of 71 in Toledo, Ohio. Amos Friend, born in 1861, led a shorter life, dying in 1898 at the age of 36 in Bucyrus, Ohio. Both men were supposedly buried in Bucyrus - 100 miles north of Yoctangee Park.
As neither Jacob nor Amos had any living descendants, figuring out who the jawbone found in Yoctangee Park belonged to would require the exhumation of their remains. As Yoctangee Park John Doe was now known to be a historical case, and with the prospect of exhumations further disturbing the remains of the Friend brothers, the Ross County Coroner’s Office decided that the case could be closed.
“Our team quickly recognized this was likely a historical case,” said team co-leader, Emily Bill. “This made the search for the Doe complex, but we ultimately honed in on his parents thanks to the members of his wider family who’d chosen to upload their DNA.”
The DNA Doe Project is grateful to the groups and individuals who helped solve this case: the Ross County Coroner’s Office, who entrusted the case to the DNA Doe Project; the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation for DNA extraction; Astrea Forensics for library preparation for whole-genome sequencing; Azenta Life Sciences for whole-genome sequencing; Kevin Lord for bioinformatics; GEDmatch Pro and FamilyTreeDNA for providing their databases; our generous donors who joined our mission and contributed to this case; and DDP’s dedicated teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who work tirelessly to bring all our Jane and John Does home.
Republished courtesy of DDP