DNA reveals identity of man whose body was found more than three decades ago in Missouri
In the latest cold case to be solved through advances in DNA technology, the sheriff's office in Jefferson County, Missouri, announced Tuesday that the former John Doe was Benny Leo Olson from Edwardsville, a suburb on the Illinois side of the river about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of St. Louis.
Officials do not suspect any foul play in the case, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
After learning Olson had been dead more than three decades, his half-sister Catherine Heston told the newspaper, 'We knew something must have happened, but you never really know.' If alive today, he would be 76.
She said Olson was a 'perpetual student,' attending St. Louis Community College-Meramec, Western Illinois University in Macomb and at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
But mental illness also lurked in the background. In 1980, he was charged with trying to pay someone to burn down his stepmother's house. His fingerprints were taken as part of that criminal case, and those prints ultimately helped confirm his identity following a partial DNA match to a distant relative.
Olson, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was deemed not competent to stand trial. He spent 11 years at a mental health facility in Illinois before being released in the early 1990s, Heston said.
Heston said the last time she heard from Olson would've been about a month before his body was found in the river, when he called during what she described as a 'paranoid delusion.'
The family often wondered what happened. Over the years, her mother kept a box full of mementos, including his high school class ring, family photos and other keepsakes.
'This case resolution is a testament to the power of investigative genetic genealogy to give John and Jane Does their names back and provide answers to family,' Alyssa Feller, a forensic genetic genealogist who worked on the case, said in a news release.
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So the Trauma & Resilience Initiative called upon trained volunteers to meet with the person in the non-profit's office, where they also supplied food. The volunteers helped de-escalate the situation by calming the person down and collaborating with another local organization to provide the person with a hotel room. 'That's the beautiful thing about having a community-based approach, is we can be pretty flexible,' Simms said. 'And we see ourselves as a part of a team, a network of people in the community.' James Corbin works as a peer mentor and drop-in center coordinator at the non-profit FirstFollowers, which helps formerly incarcerated people find work and housing. Corbin has attended several training sessions from the Trauma & Resilience Initiative, which he said that he's used to help hundreds of people in various situations. Through the training, he learned how to identify when someone is in a trauma response. He established trust with the population that he served by sharing his own experience of being incarcerated and becoming paralyzed from gun violence. Three years ago, he responded to a call from a formerly incarcerated person who was also in a wheelchair and was considering hurting himself. Corbin talked the man down by sharing his personal story and reminding him what made his life worth living. 'I got into his head, into his mind, and I understand where he's at. He's at a high anxiety level. He don't see a future,' Corbin said. 'Part of that training is: 'There is a future. You can do this.'' If the Trauma & Resilience Initiative can raise money, Simms hopes to offer stipends and additional training to volunteers so neighbor-to-neighbor counseling can continue regardless of the organization's future.
