between 30 and 55 years old.
The Phoenix Police Department followed the standard process of identification — entering fingerprints and a DNA sample into police databases — but had no success for decades.
However, after a series of specialist genealogy labs collaborated with authorities on the John Doe case, two living third cousins were identified, and the man has been confirmed as John Thiellesen.
John Thiellesen.via Ramapo College
According to police in Toledo, Ohio, who appealed for information on his whereabouts as recently as 2023, Thiellesen was reported missing there by his brother in 2004. Police said Thiellesen suffered from mental health problems and called his sister to say he had "cleansed himself" and was planning on jumping into a river.
It's unclear how he ended up in Phoenix.
The breakthrough in identifying Thiellesen came after the medical examiner in Maricopa County referred the case to the Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center in New Jersey in September 2024.
From there, a blood sample was sent to genomic researchers at Genelogue in Georgia, and then to Parabon Nanolabs in Virginia, for bioinformatics research.
The resulting genotype was uploaded to DNA databases, and undergraduates and staff at Ramapo searched in vain for a match.
Then, between the last day of the semester and the winter break, the staff found the cousins and Christen Eggers, senior medicolegal death investigator in the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner, confirmed it was Thiellesen.
Eggers said in a statement that the college's work "has become a beacon of hope for individuals and families across the nation" whose loved ones have gone missing.
"This case showcases the power of investigative genetic genealogy to close longstanding missing persons cases," Cairenn Binder, assistant director of the IGG Center at Ramapo, said. "Every John and Jane Doe is the answer to a family missing a loved one, and we will continue to do everything in our power to keep restoring their names and providing those answers."
The IGG center has helped solve 28 cases and is currently working on 39 others.