On Dec. 14, 2021 the Tyler Police Department’s Major Crimes Division of Tyler County, Texas (TPD) and the DNA Doe Project (DDP) confirmed identification of remains of a man found in Tyler County in 2004 as those of Kim Ryan Casey. Using investigative genetic genealogy, DDP was able to solve the seventeen-year-old cold case of the man known only as Barn John Doe 2004 since his discovery.
Born in 1952, Casey was last known to be living in Coppell, Texas. His skeletal remains were found on December 23, 2004 by children in a barn located in a wooded area in South Tyler, Texas, a little more than 100 miles from Coppell. Casey was 52 when he is thought to have died months earlier in that same year.
After exhausting all available leads, in 2019 Detective James Holt of the Tyler Police Department’s Major Crimes Division brought the case to the DDP. Volunteer genealogists were able to identify a candidate in August 2021, and Holt was then able to contact family members to confirm the match.
“This case had some interesting challenges, including a DNA sample that was very small in quantity and heavily contaminated with bacteria,” notes Kevin Lord, Lab Liaison for the DNA Doe Project. “I’m glad that, despite these hurdles, we were able to identify Kim and bring some answers to his family.”
“The research tree sent us as far away as Scotland to find common ancestors between DNA matches. We were challenged by matches that were more distantly related than expected, which was due to endogamy in the Kentucky and Missouri regions of the family tree," said volunteer genealogist Missy Koski.
Republished courtesy of DDP. Photo credit: DDP/Texas Department of Public Safety