'Headless man' found in Idaho cave identified as murderer who escaped jail in 1916

Transcript

A torso that was discovered in a remote Idaho cave 40 years ago has finally been identified — and it belongs to an outlaw who killed his wife and then broke out of jail before meeting his own grisly death.

Joseph Henry Loveless was last seen in 1916 after breaking out of the jail where he was being held for the murder of his wife, Agnes Octavia Caldwell Loveless. His torso was not discovered until 1979. 

His identity remained a mystery until forensic genealogists used DNA to build a complex genealogical tree and whittle down the results to one man. 

"We were all pretty shocked by the eventual identification," Amy Michael, an anthropologist who worked on the cold case, told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann. 

'I really wanted to know who he was'

The mystery began in 1979, when a family that was searching for arrowheads in Buffalo Cave near Dubois, Idaho, found the torso. Then in 1991, an arm and two legs were discovered. 

To this day, the head has never been found. 

Michael was working as a professor at Idaho State University when she learned about the "headless man," who has been the subject of lore at the school for decades.

"I really wanted to know who he was," she said. "I really wanted to advocate for him because it was so abundantly clear that he was a homicide victim." 

Over the years, anthropologists, forensic experts and law enforcement officers were able to determine the man's hair was reddish brown, he was of European descent and he may have been around 40 when he died. 

With this information, the case seemed perfect for the DNA Doe Project, a not-for-profit that uses DNA testing to identify John and Jane Does in the hopes of returning remains to families.   

"I thought, 'Well, this is a challenging case. Really cold and no head,'" Michael said. 

Earlier this year, along with Clark County authorities, Michael pitched the case to the DNA Doe Project. 

Thousands of DNA matches

In order to figure out the identity of the remains, forensic genealogists used the DNA to build a family tree. 

They soon discovered that the John Doe was a descendent of early Mormon pioneers at a time when polygamy was legal. That meant the possible results were in the thousands. 

"He ended up having a lot of matches that were first cousins three times removed, which is very unusual in this type of scenario," Bingham Redgrave, a forensic genealogist with the DNA Doe Project, told The Associated Press. 

Also complicating the effort was Loveless's fondness for aliases. When he was arrested for the murder of his wife, the local paper reported that his name was Walt Cairns. 

But at Agnes's funeral, one of her children told a reporter it was their father who was in jail, and that he would likely be escaping soon because he "never stays in jail very long," Michael said. 

His clothes were also a clue. The outfit he was wearing when he was arrested, as seen in a wanted poster, was the same one found on the remains. 

Using DNA, local papers and historical documents, the scientists finally settled on Loveless. 

Revenge killing

Michael said they can only speculate how Loveless died, but she believes it was a revenge killing for the brutal murder of his wife with an axe. 

"There was talk in the town of lynching him and the sheriff even said at the press conference a couple of days ago that he thinks that the locals kind of took care of the job," she said. 

The case will remain open because the Clark County Sheriff's Office says it still does not know who killed Loveless. It was able to contact one of Loveless's surviving relatives, an 87-year-old grandson.

Michael said she is hopeful stories about Loveless will revive someone's memories or old family rumours. 

"The identification is such a relief and it's so exciting to know," she said. "But now I want to know more."

Michael said Loveless's history of violence doesn't ruin the story for her. 

"Ultimately, it doesn't change anything for me because we can't mete out justice, you know, unequally," she said. 

"Everyone deserves to be identified and to go home and to have a dignified burial."

Written by Sarah Jackson with files from the Associated Press. Produced by Morgan Passi.