CHILLICOTHE, Ohio – Three years after a jawbone was discovered on the banks of the Scioto River, the Ross County Coroner’s Office has officially closed the case—thanks to groundbreaking DNA analysis that linked the remains to a man who died more than a century ago.

The Scioto Valley Guardian first reported on this discovery in 2022, when a man and his children stumbled upon the human remains near a boat ramp in Yoctangee Park on July 30, 2022. No other bones were found in the area, and investigators were initially unable to determine the deceased’s age, ethnicity, or identity.

That’s when the Ross County Coroner’s Office turned to the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit specializing in forensic genealogy.

What started as a standard cold case investigation quickly veered into the unexpected. By January 2024, forensic experts generated a DNA profile from a tooth recovered in the jawbone and uploaded it to GEDmatch, a database used for investigative genealogy. The results stunned researchers—this wasn’t a recent death at all.

Instead, the jawbone belonged to one of five brothers born to Salem Friend (1828-1917) and Mary Miller (1832-1918), a 19th-century Ohio couple. Their family had spent generations in the state, but none of their five sons had been buried anywhere near Ross County.

“This was certainly an unusual case, which presented a different set of genealogical challenges,” said DNA Doe Project team co-leader, Rebecca Somerhalder. “But these challenges made it the perfect case for the practicum students to learn from, and their hard work contributed significantly to the eventual resolution of this case.”

The investigation was assigned to the DNA Doe Project’s 2024 spring practicum program, in which trainees work under the guidance of experienced forensic genealogists. The team ultimately determined that the remains likely belonged to either Jacob Friend (1852-1923) or Amos Friend (1861-1898), two of Salem and Mary’s sons.

Both men had official death certificates and were supposedly buried in Bucyrus, Ohio, about 100 miles north of where the jawbone was found. Further DNA testing ruled out three of the five brothers, leaving only Jacob and Amos as the probable identity of the remains.

However, without living descendants to compare DNA samples, definitively confirming whether the jawbone belonged to Jacob or Amos would require exhuming their bodies—something investigators ultimately decided against.

As a result, the Ross County Coroner’s Office ruled the case historical in nature and opted to close it rather than disturb additional remains.

“Our team quickly recognized this was likely a historical case,” said DNA Doe Project team co-leader, Emily Bill. “This made the search for the Doe complex, but we ultimately honed in on his parents thanks to the members of his wider family who’d chosen to upload their DNA.”

Unanswered questions remain

While the case has been solved to the best extent possible, one major question remains: How did a jawbone from a man buried in Bucyrus end up in the Scioto River in Chillicothe?

With no evidence of foul play and a century between the death and discovery, authorities don’t expect to ever get an answer. Whether the bone was disinterred by erosion, flooding, or human activity will likely remain a mystery.

The DNA Doe Project credited multiple agencies for helping solve the case, including the Ross County Coroner’s Office, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and forensic specialists at Astrea Forensics, Azenta Life Sciences, and GEDmatch Pro.

With this case now closed, one thing is certain—science and forensic genealogy just gave a name, and a story, to someone lost for over a century.