The decades-old cold case of a John Doe's remains were identified by the DNA Doe Project. The non-profit organisation identified the body to be of an outlaw's from Idaho. The body was dismembered and the head has still not been found. The initial remains found in the Civil Defense Caves near Dubois, Idaho, in 1979 and later parts were found in 1991.
The investigators were finally able to put a name on the body because of the non-profit organisation. The headless body was identified to be Joseph Henry Loveless. The organisation estimated that his remains would have been placed around 1916.
Who was the 'Clark County John Doe'?
After extensive research on Loveless, they were able to identify that he was an outlaw and murderer. The announcement of the identification of John Doe came from the organisation where they detailed on his past as well. Anthony Redgrave, team leader for Clark County John Doe at the DNA Doe Project said that 14 genealogists over the course of 15 weeks, put in over 2,000 hours of genealogical research into this identification.
Loveless was identified as a man who was born in 1870 in Payson, Utah Territory, to Sarah Jane Scriggins and Joseph Jackson Loveless. His mother was from Massachusetts, and his father came from Indiana.They came to the territory as early pioneers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The DNA Doe project said that when Loveless was 28, he married Harriett Jane "Hattie" Savage in Salt Lake City and had a child together. They were divorced in 1904. Hattie filed for the divorce stating that he had deserted her and was not providing for her and her child.
Loveless was arrested
Loveless married another woman a year later in 1905. He had four children with Agnes Octavia Caldwell. In 1914 he was arrested for bootlegging. The organization said that he made an escape from the jail by sawing through the bars. In March 1916, Loveless tried another escape attempt from a train which was taking him to the jail.
He was captured and arrested but he escaped yet again. In May 1916 Loveless's wife was murdered by a Charles Smith who was recorded as her husband in some reports. The murderer was arrested as Walter Currans. At her funeral one of the children was quoted saying "Papa never stayed in jail very long and he'll soon be out." Walter Currans escaped from the jail after some time.
Clark County Sheriff's Office via police records confirmed to the organisation that Charles Smit, Walter Currans and Joseph Loveless were all the same person. It is believed that he escaped from the jail and was murdered shortly after that. It is not known who killed and dismembered him. The upper body was found by hunters in 1979 in a burlap sack in the caves.
