Credit: St. Joseph County Police Department's Facebook
On June 9, 1985, a family walking their dog smelled something horrible and went to investigate. That is when they discovered a man’s badly decomposed body behind a Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in St. Joseph, Indiana. It was determined the man had been shot to death, and his identify was never confirmed.
Today, Sep. 15, 2025, St. Joseph County Police, the Coroner’s Office, and other agencies will exhume the remains of this man—known only as the “Howard Johnson John Doe”—from Tutt Cemetery in an attempt to give him his name back.
“This is something that honestly hasn't been done a lot,” said Detective Allan Barnes of the St. Joseph County Police. “We will gather evidence from the bones and we will send it down it for genealogy analysis.”
The John Doe is described as a white male between the ages of 20 and30 years old, between 5'9 and 6’1, and is believed to be between 150 and 175 pounds with longer brown hair and a mustache.
He was found wearing blue jeans, a rock band T-shirt, white tennis shoes, and a green U.S. Army jacket with the name “Hosea” and an emblem patch that read "3rd Armored Division 'Spearhead." While detectives thought that jacket could be a missing link, they recently found out it wasn't the victims. The investigation revealed the jacket was given to him at a soup kitchen.
Detectives do not believe John Doe was killed where he was found, but they do know he was killed by a gunshot wound. While this case is advancing, police are asking anyone with information to please come forward.
“Think about if it’s your brother or father and what you would want someone to do in that situation,” said Barnes.