After more than four decades of dead ends, a grim discovery from 1979 now has a name. Joseph A. Caliva, who was 27 at the time of his demise, has been identified as the man whose dismembered and partially burned remains were found in Barrington Hills, as reported by Chicago Sun-Times. Using cutting-edge DNA and forensic genealogy techniques, investigators were to finally put a name to the grisly case that had puzzled the Barrington Hills police for 44 years.
The breakthrough came when Barrington Hills police sent evidence to be analyzed by Othram, a Texas company specializing in forensic DNA testing. Their work led the investigators to confirm that the remains belonged to Caliva. However, details about where Caliva lived at the time of his death were not disclosed and no department spokesperson could be reached for comment, according to the Sun-Times.
Authorities had originally been stumped by the case when the body parts, a torso and two legs, were found on August 5, 1979, by a horseback rider along Old Dundee Road. The investigative team worked with what little they had—knowing the person was no older than fifty, stood between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 8 inches tall, and that the murder had taken place elsewhere.
It was not until the recent DNA testing did they were able to identify the victim as Caliva, reported missing from the same area he was later discovered. Despite the identification, no suspects have been apprehended in connection with the murder, as noted by WLS-TV. The case remains an unsolved enigma, with the hope that this newfound clue will lead to the justice long overdue for Joseph Caliva.
