KINGMAN, AZ — Mohave County Sheriff’s officials say human remains found more than 40 years ago near Kingman have been identified thanks to new DNA testing.
In September 1982, people in the rural desert area near Highway 66 and Hackberry Road discovered human remains.
The remains were found with a plastic hair comb, a rusty can opener, clothing fragments, and other toiletry items.
At the time, a medical examiner determined the remains likely belonged to a man over 55 years old who died sometime between the years of 1979 and 1981.
The cause of death was not able to be determined and despite numerous attempts, the person could also not be identified.
In 2023, the remains of “John Doe” were transferred to Othram Inc., a genetic laboratory in Texas, which used advanced DNA testing to finally identify the man through distant relatives’ DNA.
Experts were able to learn that the man was Virgil R. Renner from Humboldt, Calif. It has been determined that Renner was born in 1910 and left California in the early 1970s to search for gold in Nevada. It’s unknown why or how he made it to the Kingman area.
He reportedly never married or had children, but had two siblings who are both deceased. Otherwise, not much else is known about Renner, MCSO says.
Multiple other sets of human remains found in Mohave County in the past several years have been recently identified.
Some of those cases include a man reported missing in 2019, a man reported missing in 2021, a decades-old murder victim finally identified, and a case that officials are still looking for more information on.
