"It's not often we see someone end up as a John Doe twice," said DNA Doe Project team leader Traci Onders. Two discoveries, 23 years apart, same victim. The ocean kept its secret for decades.
For four years, the case sat cold until the DNA Doe Project stepped in. Using forensic genetic genealogy, they traced family trees back to San Diego and hit a match — the 2022 leg belonged to the same man identified in 2003.
Fast forward to June 2022: a family hunting seashells at Salmon Creek Beach (5 miles from the first discovery) finds a long bone with surgical hardware still attached. No other remains. No clues. Just another "John Doe."
In 2003, Kinney's daughter in Ohio tipped off investigators. X-rays of his feet matched the remains in the shoe. Case closed — Kinney was officially declared deceased. The mystery seemed solved.
Walter Karl Kinney, a 59-year-old Santa Rosa banker, vanished in August 1999. Months later, a single leg in a size 12 Rockport shoe with a custom orthopedic insert was found near Bodega Head. No body. No name. Just a shoe.
A severed leg that washed up in 2022 just closed a 27-year cold case — and the victim had already been identified once before, back in 2003. Same man, declared dead twice, decades apart.
6/6 🧵
"It's not often we see someone end up as a John Doe twice," said DNA Doe Project team leader Traci Onders. Two discoveries, 23 years apart, same victim. The ocean kept its secret for decades.
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5/6 🧵
For four years, the case sat cold until the DNA Doe Project stepped in. Using forensic genetic genealogy, they traced family trees back to San Diego and hit a match — the 2022 leg belonged to the same man identified in 2003.
4/6 🧵
Fast forward to June 2022: a family hunting seashells at Salmon Creek Beach (5 miles from the first discovery) finds a long bone with surgical hardware still attached. No other remains. No clues. Just another "John Doe."
3/6 🧵
In 2003, Kinney's daughter in Ohio tipped off investigators. X-rays of his feet matched the remains in the shoe. Case closed — Kinney was officially declared deceased. The mystery seemed solved.
2/6 🧵
Walter Karl Kinney, a 59-year-old Santa Rosa banker, vanished in August 1999. Months later, a single leg in a size 12 Rockport shoe with a custom orthopedic insert was found near Bodega Head. No body. No name. Just a shoe.
1/6 🧵
A severed leg that washed up in 2022 just closed a 27-year cold case — and the victim had already been identified once before, back in 2003. Same man, declared dead twice, decades apart.