(CLEVELAND) — A 20-year-old Cleveland resident who went missing 45 years ago has been identified through advanced DNA technology, the latest in a string of collaborative scientific successes involving unknown remains in Ohio.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Dr. Thomas Gilson, medical examiner for Cuyahoga County, announced today that the remains are those of Danny Lee Mitchell, who lived at 3393 E. 119 St. in Cleveland.
“Everyone counts, everybody matters – and thanks to forensic advancements, Danny Mitchell’s identity has been restored,” Yost said. “Our team has gone above and beyond to compassionately work this case, reminding everyone that through partnerships, decades-old cases can be solved.”
“We are pleased to provide answers to this part of the investigation so that it may help bring some closure to Danny Mitchell's family,” Gilson said. “At the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office, we acknowledge our collaborative partners in law enforcement and forensics, including BCI and the many individuals who helped identify Danny. As forensic technology continues to advance, it’s important that we remain committed to identifying those individuals who pass through our office without a name.”
Mitchell was last seen on April 2, 1980, at a house at 6319 Euclid Ave. A Call & Post newspaper story at the time described Mitchell as 5 feet 7 and 150 pounds with a close-cut Afro. He was wearing blue jeans, an orange flowered shirt and a black jacket, the story said, and was known to wear his 1978 class ring from John Adams High School.
Nearly four decades would pass before investigators were able to make any headway regarding Mitchell’s whereabouts.
A glimmer of hope
The case began to break in November 2017, after the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) held a press conference to unveil a clay facial reconstruction of a man whose remains had been found in February 1982 in Twinsburg, in nearby Summit County.
Believing that the clay model resembled Mitchell, his family members contacted BCI. Using DNA samples provided by Mitchell’s family through BCI’s Project LINK, however, forensic scientists were able to determine that the Twinsburg remains were not Mitchell’s. (Four years later, a positive identification was made: The remains were those of Frank Little Jr., also a Cleveland resident who, like Mitchell, had been missing for decades.)
The report of Mitchell as a missing person prompted BCI to submit Mitchell’s case to NamUs, a national database of missing and unidentified persons that facilitates comparisons across cities, counties and states. Three years later, in 2020, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office launched an internal initiative to add cold cases into NamUs.
The results buoyed investigators, who learned of a possible match between one of the Cuyahoga County unidentified-remains cases and Danny Mitchell’s.
The history behind the Cuyahoga County remains inspired hope, too. They had been found in May 1980 in an abandoned residence at 2041 E. 65th St., less than a quarter-mile from the house where Mitchell was last seen alive and only several weeks after he was reported missing.
Yet another roadblock loomed.
DNA testing was a technology undeveloped and unknown to investigators in 1980 when the body was discovered. The remains, unidentified and unclaimed, were eventually buried in Potter’s Field, a Cleveland cemetery used since the early 1900s as a final resting place for unknown, unclaimed or indigent people.
DNA testing limitations
Challenges aside, BCI and the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office kept at it.
Eager to determine whether the two cases were one and the same, they turned to the one item of DNA preserved from the autopsy of the Cuyahoga County remains: a cluster of scalp hair. Rootless hair is low-quality, posing significant challenges to scientists seeking to obtain a DNA profile.
Initial analysis by BCI’s DNA laboratory in 2020 and 2021 yielded no DNA profile, prompting the forensic scientists to pursue additional testing methods, including mitochondrial DNA analysis. Simultaneously, investigators – hoping to obtain additional DNA samples for comparison – wanted to exhume John Doe’s remains from Potter’s Field but couldn’t locate his burial site.
In 2022, BCI and the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office sought help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which agreed to fund additional advanced DNA testing.
Although an analysis completed in 2023 provided a partial profile confirming a maternal link between Mitchell’s living relatives and John Doe, the results were not a conclusive DNA match.
Success at last
Still, there was no stopping investigators. They refused to give up.
In 2024, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children secured federal funding to help resolve cases of unidentified remains. This funding brought renewed hope when Astrea Forensics, a California-based company, was hired to conduct additional testing of the John Doe hair as well as investigative genetic genealogy testing.
In February 2025, Astrea successfully developed a DNA profile from the hair sample. BCI and experts from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children collaborated with genealogists from Virginia-based Innovative Forensic Investigations to upload that profile to GEDmatch PRO, a portal designed to support law enforcement and forensic teams with investigative comparisons to GEDmatch data.
The result was a long time coming: A direct comparison of John Doe’s profile and Mitchell’s siblings’ confirmed the May 1980 unidentified remains as those of Danny Mitchell.
Statements from our partners:
Dr. John Bischoff III, vice president of the Missing Children Division of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
“This identification is a powerful reminder that time does not diminish the importance of seeking answers—or the need to keep hope alive. It is the first made possible through funding from the Children’s Justice Project, which is helping bring new attention and resources to NCMEC’s unidentified cases. We are grateful to have worked alongside so many dedicated partners and agencies to help give Danny’s family the answer they’ve waited decades to receive.”
Cristina Valencia, lab director at Astrea Forensics
“Through advances in DNA technology, we were able to overcome the challenges of the degraded sample and provide the scientific evidence needed for this identification. We’re grateful that these specialized methods could help bring closure. This case demonstrates both the evolution of forensic genetics and the profound importance of restoring names to the unidentified.”
Jennifer Moore, CEO of Innovative Forensic Investigations
“Innovative Forensic Investigation is grateful to have been part of the team in helping to finally put a name to this individual and bring long-lost answers to the family. This case was a great example of how a family coming together could also help in solving a case by providing their own samples for comparison while continuing to stay strong for one another even after all these years.”
MEDIA CONTACT:
Steve Irwin: 614-728-5417
-30-