Joseph Henry Loveless

Joseph Henry Loveless was born in 1870 in Payson, 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 pioneers with the Latter Day Saint movement.
In 1979, a family searching for arrowheads in Buffalo Cave, near Boise, Idaho discovered human remains in a burlap sack. The remains consisted 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 the the man was of European descent, and was around 40 years old at the time of death. Identification was thought implausible due to a missing head. In 2019, Idaho State University researchers and Clark County authorities solicited help from the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit organization that seeks to identify unidentified deceased persons via forensic genealogy. Researchers constructed a genealogical tree for the unidentified remains. Because one of Loveless' grandfather's was a polygamist with four wives, the tree was "huge" with hundreds of cousins and other relatives. Loveless was considered as a plausible candidate, though, as his gravestone was found to be a cenoptah (not accompanied by his remains). Loveless' 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.