Missing Banker Since 1999 Identified 23 Years Later After Double Discovery

Partial human remains discovered on a California beach in 2022 have been identified as Walter Karl Kinney, a former banker who disappeared in 1999.

A family located a long bone containing surgical hardware on Salmon Creek Beach in Sonoma County in June 2022. The DNA Doe Project, in collaboration with partners, worked on the identification for years.

The remains were identified as Walter Karl Kinney, 59, who had lived in Santa Rosa. The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office acknowledged the partnership with the DNA Doe Project.

Following the discovery, a DNA profile was developed for the then-unidentified man and uploaded to the GEDmatch database in January. A team working on the case identified a family that had moved from the East Coast to the San Diego area, which led to Kinney's name.

A significant breakthrough occurred when the team found an article about human remains that had washed ashore in 1999, south of Bodega Bay. The team also learned that in 2003, a woman had contacted investigators about her father, who had been missing since August 1999. The remains found in 1999 were later identified as her father using X-ray records. This information helped connect both sets of remains to Kinney.

"It’s not often we see someone end up as a John Doe twice."

DNA Doe team lead Traci Onders stated that the case is one of the most unusual she has worked on. The investigative genetic genealogy process helped resolve this complex mystery.