DNA Doe Project identifies man killed in Youngstown-area accident in 1982
Victim identified as missing Massachusetts native
Boardman, OH – More than four decades after he was killed in a traffic collision in Ohio, the DNA Doe Project has identified Western Reserve Road John Doe as 41-year-old Charles Joseph Nunnenman III. Nunnenman was originally from the Boston area but was last known to be living in Los Angeles, with his connection to Ohio still a mystery.
Charles Joseph Nunnenman III
On August 12, 1982, a man was walking westbound on Western Reserve Road in the Youngstown suburb of Boardman, Ohio. Just before midnight, he was struck and killed by a car traveling in the same direction. The driver left the scene, but she later turned herself in. No identification was found on the man and the case soon went cold, despite local press coverage and the existence of a distinctive tattoo.
The Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office later brought this case to the DNA Doe Project, whose expert investigative genetic genealogists work pro bono to identify John and Jane Does. The Porchlight Project, a non-profit that works to resolve cold cases in Ohio, generously funded the lab work and database upload costs for this case.
The unidentified man’s DNA profile was uploaded to the GEDmatch database, but all of his DNA matches there turned out to be very distant relatives. It became clear that the man had recent European ancestry – specifically, deep roots in Ireland. However, after his DNA was uploaded to the FamilyTreeDNA database, a closer match emerged – a woman who shared nearly 2% of her DNA with Western Reserve Road John Doe.
This match allowed the team to identify a man born in Ireland in 1836 as a likely ancestor of the unidentified man. They built out all of his descendants and found that some of them had moved to Massachusetts, which is when they came across Charles Joseph Nunnenman III.
Nunnenman was born in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1941 and grew up in the Boston area, before later moving to Los Angeles. But while the team found plenty of evidence of his life in Los Angeles in the 1960s, he then seemed to drop off the radar.
With the team unable to find any proof that Nunnenman was either alive or certifiably deceased, they presented this lead to the agency. Investigators from the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office then contacted Nunnenman’s niece, who provided a DNA sample. The resulting DNA comparison confirmed that the man formerly known as Western Reserve Road John Doe was in fact Charles Joseph Nunnenman III.
The DNA Doe Project is grateful to the groups and individuals who helped solve this case: the Porchlight Project, whose funding enabled this case to be solved; the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, who entrusted the case to the DNA Doe Project; the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Youngstown Police Department, for their collaboration on this case; Astrea Forensics for DNA extraction; Azenta Life Sciences for sequencing; Kevin Lord for bioinformatics; GEDmatch Pro, FamilyTreeDNA and DNA Justice for providing their databases; our generous donors who joined our mission and contributed to this case; and the DNA Doe Project’s dedicated teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who work tirelessly to bring all our John and Jane Does home.
Doe-Nate Fund Goal: $5,500
This case was fully funded by the Porchlight Project.
Description:
While walking westbound on Western Reserve Road near Route 7 in Boardman, Ohio, just before midnight in August, 1982, this John Doe was struck and killed by a car traveling in the same direction. The driver left the scene, but later turned herself in. No identification was found, and the case went cold despite local press coverage and a distinctive tattoo. He was 5’11” tall, 140 pounds, with brown hair, hazel eyes, and a full beard and mustache.
NamUs ID:
UP8548
Date Body Found:
August 12, 1982
Race:
White/Caucasian
Sex:
Male
Estimated Age:
18-50
Estimated PMI:
24 hours
Agency of Jurisdiction:
Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office
Inspector James Ciotti
330-480-5027
james.ciotti@sheriff.mahoning.oh.us
More Information:
https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/8548/attachments?nav
Status:
Identified
Last Updated: January 6, 2026
