For nearly 44 years, he was known only as the “Unknown Wanderer” — a man found dead beneath a pew inside Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Boise on Dec. 4, 1982, with cyanide, a typewritten suicide note, $1,900 in cash, and an alias signed at the bottom: “Wm. L. Toomey.” Now, Ada County officials say they’ve finally cracked the case, and they planned to reveal his real identity at a news conference Wednesday.
Officials said they solved one of Idaho’s longest-standing cold cases and would reveal the man’s identity at the Sept. 23 news conference, according to the Idaho Statesman. The case has stretched back to that December morning in 1982, when the unidentified man was discovered in the pews of the Boise church, having died by suicide with the aid of cyanide, per information from the Doe Network cited by the Statesman.
The scene he left behind was as strange as it was sparse. A typewritten note and $1,900 in cash were found alongside the body, according to Idaho News 6, with the note signed using the alias Wm. L. Toomey. Despite having no known identity, the man wasn’t buried in anonymity — a public funeral was held two days later, on Dec. 6, 1982, and 200 to 300 people reportedly turned out for the service, per the same outlet.
A Case That Wouldn't Fade From Memory
The mystery lingered for decades, resurfacing in 1990 when the case was featured on the television show Unsolved Mysteries, the outlet's report notes. That connection apparently never fully faded: Ada County investigators said they worked closely with the Unsolved Mysteries team during the current investigation, according to KIVI-TV.
Ada County Cold Case Detective Tim Cooper and Sheriff Matt Clifford were expected to speak at Wednesday's news conference, the station reported. The case had remained unresolved for nearly 44 years before investigators said they were finally ready to put a name to the man in the pew, according to a separate KIVI-TV report.
The Tylenol Question Still Unanswered
Much of the recent attention on the case has centered on a possible link to another infamous unsolved mystery: the Chicago-area Tylenol poisonings, which claimed seven lives in September 1982 after over-the-counter pain pills were laced with cyanide. That's according to the Statesman, which noted the poisonings happened about two months before the Unknown Wanderer was found dead in Boise. Those poisonings led to major changes in how over-the-counter medications are packaged nationwide, KIVI-TV reported.
But the exact nature of any connection between the two cases has not been spelled out. Investigators have not yet explained what connection, if any, they believe exists between the two cases, according to KIVI-TV's reporting — and the Tylenol case itself remains unsolved, the station noted. Ahead of Wednesday's announcement, it was unclear whether officials would address that link directly or simply confirm the wanderer's name.
