Two boys discovered a man's body inside an abandoned two-story home on Forbes Road in Oakwood Village, Ohio, in 1970, setting off a homicide investigation that remains unsolved 56 years later. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office determined the man died of a shotgun wound to his head, and investigators were never able to identify him — meaning the case has sat open for more than five decades without so much as a name attached to it.
According to Cleveland 19 News, the property sat along Forbes Road near Interstate 480, and investigators believed the man had been dead for seven to 10 days before he was found. State records maintained by the Ohio Attorney General's Office list the address as 24515 Forbes Road, catalogued as State Case #3044. The abandoned house had already been the scene of several fires the previous year, in 1969, and investigators found a burned-out 1966 Cadillac sedan — reported stolen — about 1,000 feet away.
Inside a Brutal Crime Scene
Investigators with the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department believed the man may have been beaten before he died, and they said his head appeared to be crushed and detached from his body. He had $14 in his pocket when he was found. His clothing offered some of the detectives' only leads: a black cotton shirt, black pants threaded with multiple colors, and a label reading "Dry Clean Only, Kuppenheimer Everkreased," as per Cleveland 19 News.
The man was described as African American, between 25 and 35 years old, and 5 feet 7 inches tall, with medium-length black hair. Cleveland 19 News reported that his white canvas shoes were possibly made by Keds and featured red and blue stripes. The Ohio Attorney General's records describe the shoes differently: low-cut, size 9 sneakers with insoles stamped "Speed Star - Full Cushioned Insole - Cushion Arch, Made in USA," speckled with white, cream, brown, and green paint. Investigators also recovered a small black hair pick near the body bearing the name "KEE," which the same state records describe as measuring about 2.25 inches in tooth length with five of its original eight teeth intact when it was logged into evidence.
No DNA Profile, No Match Yet
Fifty-six years later, the biggest obstacle to identifying him isn't a shortage of physical evidence — it's the absence of DNA. The station reported this week that the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office has no DNA profile on file for the Oakwood Village John Doe, and that only one missing-person listing in NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, has ever been formally checked and excluded as a possible match. Investigators are still working to determine whether DNA or other evidence could move the case forward, per the same report.
Cuyahoga County carries the heaviest such backlog in the state. The county has 55 unidentified-persons entries logged in NamUs — far more than Franklin County's 10 and Hamilton County's seven — according to the same outlet's reporting.
A 45-Year-Old Cleveland Case Shows It's Possible
Cold cases like this one aren't necessarily unsolvable. In April 2025, the Ohio Attorney General's Office and Cuyahoga County officials announced the identification of Danny Mitchell, a 20-year-old Cleveland man missing since 1980, whose unidentified remains were matched 45 years later through NamUs cross-referencing and the Children's Justice Project, according to WKYC. Mitchell had been buried unidentified in Cleveland's Potter's Field before investigators connected the case to his name.
Modern DNA Tools Could Break the Case Open
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office runs a specialized G.O.L.D. Unit — short for Genetic Operations Linking DNA — which reported in March 2025 that it had submitted 62 DNA profiles for forensic genetic genealogy and solved 23 cold-case rape investigations, according to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office. Hoodline previously reported on how similar DNA work led to a 2013 bar rape arrest. Prosecutors also use so-called "John Doe indictments," charging unique genetic profiles to stop the statute of limitations from expiring in unresolved violent crimes while a case awaits identification.
The medical examiner's office has also turned to private forensic genomics firms when standard testing stalls. In 2014, it partnered with Othram to perform forensic-grade genome sequencing on another long-unidentified Lake Erie John Doe, according to DNA Solves. Separately, the Ohio Attorney General's Office runs Project LINK, short for Linking Individuals Not Known, a free statewide program that provides DNA testing to help families, law enforcement, and coroners match missing persons against unidentified remains nationwide.
Identifying Him Comes First
Justin Wilson said every unidentified-person case requires efforts to identify the person and notify their family. Identifying an unidentified person is the basic first step of every investigation, he told Cleveland 19 News, adding that no homicide investigation into who killed the Oakwood Village man can move forward until he has a name.
How to Help
Anyone with information about the Oakwood Village John Doe is asked to contact the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office at 216-721-5610 and select option 1, or to request the office's investigations department directly.
