{"id":17929,"date":"2025-06-27T02:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T02:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/17929\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T02:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T02:46:10","slug":"modern-dna-tech-helps-identify-man-found-37-years-ago-in-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/17929\/","title":{"rendered":"Modern DNA tech helps identify man found 37 years ago in Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/shirlee-lewis-henkel.jpeg\" alt=\"\" data-v-7d0efd03=\"\"\/> article    <\/p>\n<p data-v-bd34935e=\"\"><strong>FORT WORTH, Texas<\/strong> &#8211; The name of a previously unidentified John Doe found in Fort Worth has been discovered thanks to updated DNA technology.<\/p>\n<p data-v-bd34935e=\"\">The man\u2019s remains were discovered in 1987, and he was marked as unidentified in 2008.<\/p>\n<p> Fort Worth John Doe Found in 1987  <\/p>\n<p data-v-bd34935e=\"\">The man, listed as a John Doe, was discovered in Fort Worth in October 1987 and was found to have been living in a night shelter while using a fake name. Investigators estimated that he had died five days before being found and was between 25 and 40 years old.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/shirlee-lewis-henkel-watch.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-v-0dea8073=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-0dea8073=\"\">Fort Worth John Doe watch <\/p>\n<p data-v-bd34935e=\"\">Despite wearing a watch and a distinctive ring, his body could not be identified, and an investigation was launched. Photos of the accessories and a sketch of what he looked like while alive were released, but in 2008, he was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/shirlee-lewis-henkel-ring.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-v-0dea8073=\"\"\/>  John Doe Identified <\/p>\n<p data-v-bd34935e=\"\">In 2024, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office sent evidence to Othram\u2019s laboratory for DNA testing. Using advanced technology, they were able to develop a DNA profile for the man, resulting in new leads.<\/p>\n<p data-v-bd34935e=\"\">A follow-up investigation found potential relatives of the man, and soon after, he was identified as Shirlee Lee Henkel.<\/p>\n<p data-v-bd34935e=\"\">Henkel was found to have been born in 1942, and was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force born in Deloit, Iowa. His family was found to have held a funeral for him in 1994. His gravestone is in the Saint Clair Cemetery in Ute, Iowa.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-bd34935e=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-bd34935e=\"\">&#8220;The family in this case did everything possible to find their loved one and get\u00a0resolution, and now because of advanced\u00a0DNA technology, they have that,&#8221; said Kristen Mittelman, Chief Development Officer for Othram, the company that analyzed the DNA and did the genetic\u00a0genealogy. &#8220;This case seemed\u00a0unsolvable for\u00a0almost 40 years, and now law enforcement in Texas and his family in Iowa have answers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\"><b data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source:<\/b> Information in this story came from DNASolves.com and Othram.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/us\/tx\/tarrant-county\/fort-worth\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-bd34935e=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fort Worth<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/technology\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-bd34935e=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Technology<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article FORT WORTH, Texas &#8211; The name of a previously unidentified John Doe found in Fort Worth has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,7372,50,7375,158,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-17929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fortworth","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-tarrant-county","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114753043624746449","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}