GENESEO, Ill. (KWQC) – The remains once known as Geneseo John Doe have been identified as Ronald Joe Cole — a 19-year-old who disappeared from Fillmore, California, in 1965.
For nearly 60 years, he was known only as Geneseo John Doe — a skull and scattered bones found near a creek southeast of Geneseo in 1966. The FBI later confirmed the young man had been shot, but no one knew who he was.
“There was no personal items that were found with the person, nothing identifying them whatsoever, and there were no missing persons reports in the area at that time, so they really had nothing to go on,” Sgt. Brian Haars, detective sergeant with the Henry County Sheriff’s Office, said.
That changed in 2024, when the Henry County Sheriff’s Office partnered with the DNA Doe Project to test the remains.
“Extracting DNA from old bones can be difficult, but our lab logistics team at Astrea did an amazing job getting the DNA and then generating a profile that was usable, that we could put into law enforcement databases,” Gwen Knapp, team leader with the DNA Doe Project, said.
That DNA finally gave him his name back.
“They found who they believed would be a possible match, just based on the familial matches,” Knapp said. “And so that led us to Ronald J. Cole from Ventura County, California.”
Cole was just 19 years old when he disappeared — more than 1,600 miles from where his remains were found.
“It’s amazing to be able to have that closure on a case that’s older than myself, than most people who worked it,” Sheriff Josh Verscheure said. “To finally have closure after so long is a huge thing for the family and for Henry County as a whole.”
Ronald’s family had no idea where he was — while his remains were here in Henry County. Now, this community finally knows his name.
“We finally found his living brother,” Sgt. Haars said. “He wasn’t surprised by the phone call, I think he’d probably had some false hope over the years — he was 15 when his brother went missing, and he’s 75 now. He agreed to provide another DNA sample, and we were able to upload that to GEDmatch.”
Henry County investigators say they hope to eventually name a suspect, but for now they are not naming anyone as the investigation continues.
The DNA Doe Project says Ronald Cole was living with his half-brother when he disappeared. Years later, that half-brother admitted to killing him on unrelated charges — but because the confession was not connected to physical evidence at the time, no one was ever charged in Ronald’s death.
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