‘Chimney Doe,’ skeletal remains found in Wisconsin music store pipe in 1989, finally identified

The remains of someone authorities nicknamed “Chimney Doe” have been identified nearly 35 years after he was found in the drain of a music store in Madison, Wisconsin.

The circumstances leading to Ronnie Joe Kirk’s death are still a mystery to the Madison Police Department, but Chief Shon Barnes told reporters Monday he hopes the identification of the remains will lead to new information. According to WMTV, NBC News affiliate in MadisonKirk had connections to Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama and Wisconsin.

“Someone will remember him and we will do everything we can to try to find out if he worked here, if he lived here or if he was just passing through or going somewhere else,” Barnes said. to know.”

Kirk’s remains were found in September 1989 by the owners of the Good ‘n Loud music store on University Avenue in Madison, who noticed a skull visible in a pipe connecting the boiler to the chimney. The skeleton was dressed in what Barnes described as “female” clothing and an initial autopsy determined the remains belonged to a white male between the ages of 18 and 35.

In 2019, Detective Lindsey Ludden decided to forward the “Chimney Doe” case to the DNA Donate Project. The organization was founded just two years earlier and is dedicated to using investigative genetic genealogy to help identify unknown people.

It took two years to build a genetic profile from DNA extracted from a piece of rootless hair, according to the DNA Doe Project. And that profile led investigators to Ronnie Joe Kirk.

Kirk was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1942 and was an adopted child. Barnes told reporters they discovered Kirk was married twice before his death and had children, but did not identify his living relatives.

Gwen Knapp, who led the DNA Doe Project team, said she was excited to be able to give back the name “Chimney Doe.”

“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,” Knapp said. “The astute genealogy work done by my team was incredible in revealing the various relationships. .”

But despite advances in technology, authorities are still not sure how Kirk died or how he ended up in the store’s drain. Barnes asked the public to speak up if Kirk’s photo or name sparks a memory and to “be our partner.”

This article was originally published in NBCNews. with