Body found in Santa Fe National Forest identified as 1950s grappler
Human remains discovered more than two decades ago in the Santa Fe National Forest have been identified as Keeble Wofford Sr., known in the 1950s as actor and wrestler Kimo Mahi, who had been missing since 1992.
The case is the fourth in New Mexico in which state officials have been able to positively identify someone using the DNA testing technology of forensic genealogy company Othram, the firm claims.
Wofford's bones were found by hikers in the forest in Sandoval County in 2001 and reported to the Sandoval County Sheriff's Office, Othram said in a news release. Deputies entered the case into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System as Sandoval County John Doe, whose identity remained a mystery.
Kimo Mahi.jpg
Kimo Mahi
In 2021, the sheriff's office and the state Office of the Medical Investigator sent the remains to the lab of Texas-based Othram, which used a process it calls "forensic-grade genome sequencing" to build a DNA profile from the remains, the news release states.
Othram compared a DNA sample from Wofford's daughter to the unidentified remains and was able to positively identify them, the company said.
A death certificate was then drafted for Wofford, and his cremated remains were returned to his daughter.
Investigators believe Wofford had been traveling from Pueblo, Colo., to Albuquerque in September 1992 for a business meeting and "was never heard from again," the news release says.
Wofford competed as wrestler Kimo Mahi in the 1950s and '60s. He was described in an El Paso Herald-Post column as a "plucky Hawaiian grappler."
He also appeared in at least one film — Twilight for the Gods, starring Rock Hudson and Cyd Charisse — and several television shows, according to IMDb, including the series Hawaiian Eye and Sea Hunt.
Othram's technology has been used in the past to identify the remains of two women found in and near Albuquerque as well as a suspect in a 1987 rape and murder case in Carlsbad, according to the company.
"People should know that it doesn't matter how old a case is, or whether it was hopeless in the past, there is technology here today that is able to bring answers to families like in this case," Kristen Mittelman, the company's chief development officer, said in a statement. "This was a well-known man who just disappeared more than 20 years ago and now he has his name again."
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