CAMPBELLSBURG, Ky. — The skeletal remains of a man found in 1980 near the banks of the Ohio River in Carroll County, Kentucky have been identified years after a link was discovered between those remains and a different set of remains found near the same river near Switzerland County, Indiana, according to the Kentucky State Police.
KSP said the remains in Kentucky were discovered in November 1980, but investigators didn't know at the time they were related to a separate set of remains found months earlier, in September, in Indiana. In 2005, DNA testing revealed that both sets of remains belonged to the same person, KSP said.
However, DNA testing at the time was not able to identify the man.
In 2023, KSP submitted the skeletal remains to Othram in Woodland, Texas and Othram was able to develop a DNA extract. KSP said Othram used forensic-grade genome sequencing to build a full DNA profile for the man.
That profile was then used in a genetic genealogy search that led investigators to a possible family member of the unidentified man. KSP met with the potential family member and took a DNA sample from that person for testing.
KSP said the DNA tests determined that the skeletal remains discovered in two different states, along the Ohio River, in 1980 was Kenneth Linville, born in Louisville in 1939.
KSP said the cause and manner of Linville's death is still unknown, but their investigation is ongoing.
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