‘Chimney Doe,’ skeletal remains found in pipe of Wisconsin music store in 1989, finally identified

Doha Madani
Updated ·2 min read
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The skeletal remains of someone authorities dubbed "Chimney Doe" was identified nearly 35 years after he was found in the pipe of a Madison, Wisconsin, music store.

The circumstances leading to the death of Ronnie Joe Kirk are still a mystery to the Madison Police Department, but Chief Shon Barnes told reporters Monday he's hopeful the identification will lead to new information. NBC affiliate WMTV of Madison reported that Kirk had connections to Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama and Wisconsin.

"Someone will remember him, and we’ll do everything that we can to try to trace down if he worked here, if he lived here or if he was just passing through or going somewhere else,” Barnes said. “We don’t know.”

Kirk's remains were found in September 1989 by the owners of Good ’n Loud music store on University Avenue in Madison, who noticed a skull visible in a pipe connecting the boiler to the chimney. The skeleton was in what Barnes described as "feminine" clothing, and an initial autopsy determined the remains were those a white male age 18 to 35.

In 2019, Detective Lindsey Ludden decided to refer the "Chimney Doe" case to the DNA Doe Project. The organization, which was founded just two years earlier, uses investigative genetic genealogy to help identify unknown persons.

It took two years to build a genetic profile from DNA extracted from a piece of rootless hair, according to the DNA Doe Project. And that profile led investigators to Ronnie Joe Kirk.

Kirk was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1942 and was an adopted child. Barnes told reporters that investigators discovered Kirk had been married twice and fathered children but did not identify his living relatives.

Gwen Knapp, who led the DNA Doe Project team, said she was excited to be able to give "Chimney Doe" his name back.

"This was such a unique case, with adoption and multiple generations of different marriages, despite having a relatively close DNA relative match in the family,” Knapp said. “The shrewd genealogy work done by my team was amazing to tease out the various relationships."

Despite the advance in technology, officials are still not sure how Kirk died or how he ended up in the store's pipe. Barnes asked the public to come forward and “be our partner” if Kirk's photo or name sparks a memory.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com