Madison's 'Chimney Doe' finally has a name, after nearly 35 years (2024)

“Chimney Doe” finally has a name — and a face.

On Monday, the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit that specializes in using genealogy to identify unknown persons, announced that it has identified the person whose bones were found at the bottom of a chimney in a since-demolished building on University Avenue in September 1989.

He is Ronnie Joe Kirk, originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

On Sept. 3, 1989, the owner of a University Avenue music shop was doing some repair work in the basem*nt. While looking for leaks, he found a human skeleton in a 20-inch pile at the bottom of the narrow chimney.

Chimney Doe’s identity has remained a mystery for nearly 35 years.

Madison Police Detective Lindsey Ludden brought the case to the DNA Doe Project in December 2018. In late 2021, hair samples from the skull were sent to Astrea Forensics, a California-based DNA sequencing company that specializes in degraded samples. The process took nine months and 13 attempts to get enough human DNA to put together a decent genetic profile.

Identifying Kirk was particularly challenging because he was adopted, authorities said.

“This was such a unique case with adoption, and multiple generations of different marriages, despite having a relatively close DNA relative match in the family,” Team Leader Gwen Knapp said. “The shrewd genealogy work done by my team was amazing to tease out the various relationships. We’re so excited that we can give Ronnie Kirk his name back and hope his family has some closure for Ronnie being missing for so long.”

Knapp said it took more than two years to develop the DNA profile suitable for investigating genetic genealogy.

Ludden said her goal now is to fill in the timeline of Kirk’s life.

Lingering questions

Kirk was born in 1942, adopted and raised by family members, according to investigators. He attended high school in Tulsa.

He was married and divorced twice and had children. Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said the family has asked for privacy and no additional information was given about them, beyond a statement saying they were happy to finally know what had happened to Kirk.

Kirk’s last confirmed contact with relatives was in 1970, when he divorced his second wife in Missouri, according to police spokesperson Stephanie Fryer. By that point, he’d fathered two children, one with his first wife, and another with his second. The children, now in their 50s, didn’t know each other until investigators contacted them, according to Fryer.

In January 1970, a legal notice in the Wisconsin State Journal noted the appointment of a guardian ad litem, a person appointed by a court to represent the interests of a minor child, in a family court case against Kirk.

Both of his ex-wives remarried, Fryer said. Attempts to reach possible family members Monday were unsuccessful.

Authorities haven’t been able to track down any missing persons reports on Kirk.

Investigators originally placed the time of Kirk’s death between two months and two years before his remains were found and estimated his age at between 18 and 35. But with his identity confirmed, he would have been in his late 40s if he’d been killed in the late 1980s as officials originally believed.

Barnes said the next step is figuring out who Kirk was and how he ended up in Madison.

Kirk had ties to Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, Alabama and Wisconsin, the police chief said.

One detail that authorities previously had revealed was that Chimney Doe had a “severe” pelvic fracture, a type of fracture that is typically consistent with a lot of force such as high-speed crashes or high falls. Investigators with the medical examiner’s office are reconsidering the bones given the new information now available to them, Ludden said.

The injury always had been a mystery and was long thought to have been connected to his death. But a newspaper clipping from 1957 appears to shed new light on the question. The Tulsa World story said a 14-year-old boy named Ronnie Joe Kirk was riding a scooter when he was struck by a car, possibly fracturing his right hip.

Authorities trying to identify Chimney Doe also previously said the person had been wearing a sleeveless paisley dress with a matching belt; a long-sleeved, button-down shirt that may have been made of Oxford-type cloth; a medium-size White Stag brand, shaggy-pile sweater; and low-heeled, pointed shoes.

There is, however, no indication that Kirk identified as anything other than male, Barnes said.

Authorities are asking people who recognize Kirk’s name or photo to contact Ludden at 608-229-8215.