Skeleton Found in Madison, Wisconsin Music Store Chimney Identified After 34 Years

MADISON, Wis. – After more than three decades, DNA researchers and authorities have identified a skeleton found in the chimney of a music store in Madison, Wisconsin.

The owners of the Good ‘n Loud Music store found the “Dane County Chimney Doe” on Sept. 3, 1989, while removing a boiler, according to the DNA Doe Project. They first saw a skull through a pipe before discovering the complete skeleton, which was wearing an iron cross necklace and rotting clothes. A forensic autopsy revealed that the remains belonged to a white man between 18 and 35 years old. He was about 5’7″ tall.

The DNA Doe Project worked with the Madison Police Department to identify the remains. On Monday, the project announced ID: Ronnie Joe Kirk of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Madison police contacted the DNA Doe Project in 2019, 30 years after the skeleton was discovered, for help with identification using a new method of DNA investigation. The Astrea Forensic Laboratory in Santa Cruz removed DNA from a rootless hair to develop a profile of the remains, which took more than two years. So the DNA Doe Project traced family connections until they marked Kirk as a positive identification.

“This was a unique case of adoption and multiple generations of different marriages, despite there being a relatively close relative DNA match in the family,” said Gwen Knapp of the DNA Doe Project. “The astute genealogy work done by my team was incredible in revealing the various relationships. We are so excited to be able to give Ronnie Kirk his name back and hope his family has some closure for Ronnie being missing for so long.”

Kirk’s last known ties were to Madison. It’s unclear how he got into the chimney, but it would have been impossible for him to enter from inside the building, the DNA Doe Project said. His cause of death is still unknown.

The DNA Doe Project is a non-profit organization that claims to “use cutting-edge techniques to analyze DNA samples and build family trees, helping law enforcement solve Jane and John Doe cases of unidentified individuals.” Since its founding in 2017, the organization has helped identify dozens of unknown people and has dozens of other cases under active investigation.

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