The Wyoming Cold Case Solved By Bones In A Box
In 1992, a footlocker was opened on a ranch in Thermopolis that contained human remains. The appearance of these remains baffled local law enforcement, and they set off trying to identify who the remains had belonged to, and how they ended up being locked away in a trunk.
The trunk had been moved from state to state before eventually ending up in a shed on a Thermopolis ranch. So authorities knew that the victim could have been from anywhere, and leads were slim. The man who was placed in the trunk was murdered in 1962, making the cold case even colder.
Until, through the power of the internet, a woman in Iowa saw the information about the box of bones, as well as composites of what the man may have looked like. She contacted Thermopolis authorities in 2017, believing the man to have been her grandfather. DNA evidence proved that the man was indeed Joseph Mulvaney, Shelly Statler's grandfather.
Mulvaney was a WWII veteran who had three young children when he disappeared. Statler believes that her grandmother was the one who had killed him in the 60s and stuffed his body into the footlocker, where it wouldn't be opened until 1992.
The strangest case solved with DNA, a box of bones, and a lot of patience.