Joseph Henry Loveless

Joseph Henry Loveless (December 3, 1870 – c. May 1916), formerly known as Buffalo Cave John Doe, was an American criminal who escaped prison after allegedly murdering his common-law wife, Agnes, with an axe in May of 1916. On August 26, 1979, his torso was discovered in a cave in Dubois, Idaho, followed by his limbs on March 26, 1991. However, it was not until late 2019 that the remains were positively identified as his. The positive identification was made possible by forensic genealogists.

Early life
Joseph Henry Loveless was born on December 3, 1870 at Payson, in what was then Utah Territory. His mother, Sarah Jane Scriggins, was from Massachusetts, while his father, Joseph Jackson Loveless, was from Indiana. Both of his parents were early Mormon pioneers from the Latter Day Saint movement.

Murder of Agnes Loveless and prison escape
In the early May of 1916, Loveless allegedly murdered his wife Agnes with an axe while she was asleep in her bed, and in the presence of two of their children who were awake at the time. Reports from the time identify her murderer as "Charles Smith", whom some additionally named as her husband, while their neighbours had testified that Loveless and his common-law wife, Agnes, had been fighting in the evening, several hours prior to the discovery of Agnes’ dead body. Charles Smith was one of Loveless's many aliases. Loveless was arrested and sent to jail. At Agnes Loveless's funeral on May 16, 1916, one of their sons was quoted saying, "Papa never stayed in jail very long and he will soon be out". Only two days later, on May 18, 1916, at around 5:30 PM, Loveless had broken out of the St. Anthony prison cell, by sawing through the prison cell bars, while his prison cell guards were out eating their supper. There is some speculation that Loveless was assisted by a person or person(s), from outside of his prison cell.

Death
The details of Loveless's death are unknown, and it is an open case with the Clark County Sheriff's Office as of January 2020. However, his final wanted poster after his jailbreak describes him as wearing some of the same clothes that were found with his remains: a light-colored hat, brown coat, red maroon sweater, and blue overalls over black trousers. The clothing found with the remains, included: Only a red maroon sweater, black trousers and a white-pinstriped collar shirt, which was not listed with the clothing on the wanted poster. This caused Lee Bingham Redgrave, a forensic genealogist with the DNA Doe Project, to speculate that Loveless died in 1916. The cause of death is unknown, though multiple sharp tools were used to dismember his body. Samantha Blatt, bioarchaeologist at Idaho State University, speculated that Loveless may have been killed by his deceased wife's family as revenge for her murder.

Discovery and identification of remains
In 1979, a family searching for arrowheads in Buffalo Cave near Dubois, Idaho, discovered human remains in a burlap sack, consisting of a headless torso. In 1991, a girl found a hand in the same cave, prompting excavations which recovered both legs and an arm. Forensic researchers estimated that the man was of European descent, and around 40 years old at the time of death. Identification was thought nearly impossible due to the missing head. His post-mortem interval was initially estimated to be between six months and five years. In 2019, Idaho State University anthropologists, Samantha Blatt and Amy Michael, along with Clark County authorities solicited help from the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit that seeks to identify previously unidentified deceased persons via forensic genealogy. Researchers constructed a genealogical tree for the unidentified remains. Because one of Loveless's grandfathers was a polygamist with four wives, the tree was large, with hundreds of cousins and other relatives. Loveless was considered a plausible candidate, though, as his gravestone was found to be a cenotaph (not accompanied by his remains). Loveless's 87-year-old grandson was identified as living in California, and he agreed to take a DNA test, which confirmed that the remains were those of his grandfather Joseph Henry Loveless.