Recent advances in DNA technology have allowed the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office to make progress on identifying remains exhumed five years ago from the county cemetery.
Two of the 66 sets of remains have already been identified through DNA matching, something that wasn't possible when these people died in the 1980s.
The first person identified, according to Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Gregory Hess, was a man who had been in a plane crash in the Rincon Mountains.
The other was a woman who was identified through a DNA profile match from a family member who was still looking for her.
Dr. Hess said the woman was found at a bus stop and had gone to the hospital under an alias, where she died.
The project costs the county nothing. It is all supported by a grant.
Because money isn't a concern, Dr. Hess persists in solving these John Doe cases.
He invited KGUN 9 News Anchor Concetta Callahan to visit the Medical Examiner's office and showed her the next mystery that he believes he's so close to solving.
The county no longer buries unidentified remains, says Dr. Hess. Instead, they are located on-site, in long-term storage.
The facility houses about 500 sets of remains right now, including those exhumed back in 2020 from the county cemetery, a plot of land located on the northwest corner of Evergreen Cemetery, at Oracle and Miracle Mile.
One particular set of remains that Dr. Hess is looking into are of a man who was found along South Campbell Avenue on July 18, 1988.
According to the Tucson Police Department case file, the man was found along South Campbell Avenue on July 18, 1988.
"He's probably in his 30s or 40s," Dr. Hess said.
Records show his autopsy was performed the same day.
Newspaper articles from the time just say that the body was found near the railroad tracks.
"Right, by rail crew," Dr. Hess said. "Looks like from a Southern Pacific employee."
The article reported that the African American man had possibly fallen near the tracks and hit his head.
Tucson Police found no signs of foul play, the article said.
“I believe that organization, Moxxy Forensics, has already found some potential relatives,” said Dr. Hess, which is why he feels the case is so close to being solved.
He isn’t sure how far removed the relatives are, but they have been able to get a full DNA profile on the man.
“I think they found potential relatives that might be in Mississippi or might be in Georgia,” Dr. Hess said.
Now Moxxy Forensics, an investigative genetic genealogy nonprofit, is putting together a family tree with hopes of identifying him soon.
“If we do identify this person, we have the remains to give back to potential family members.”
Dr. Hess said he gets an update about every 30 days from Moxxy Forensics on the status of identifying this man.
