Story Published: Jan 12, 2012 at 7:40 PM PDT
Story Updated: Jan 13, 2012 at 12:59 PM PDT
Grave diggers dug up the body of the Snake River victim.
The Snake River cold case was reopened last week after three decades of unanswered questions. This is the third time the case has been opened in 30 years.
"As far as I know this is the fist time we have done anything like this in Nez Perce County," said Nez Perce County Sheriff Dale Buttrey. "The significance is we believe we have a homicide. We are just stalled at this point."
Grave diggers dug up the Snake River body. In fact, the grave diggers were the same people who buried him. A bone will later be taken out and dried and sent off to Texas for examination.
"To be able to determine the identity, the coroners office had to send a portion of the deceased bone back to a lab," said Funeral Director Jason Harwick. "So we had to remove part of that to send back for identification purposes."
Coroners were able to remove the femur from the coffin which will be sent to Lewiston branch office of the FBI for sterile drying. Once the bone is dry, the bone will go to the University of North Texas for DNA analysis. The university will submit the DNA profile to all available databases and notify the sheriff's office if there are any possible matches.
"Hopefully there will be a match somewhere and we will be able to open this case up and further our investigation," said Buttrey.
Coroners were able to put John Doe back to rest in his grave, where he will reside until the victim's leg bone returns from Texas.
