Kane County John Doe

James Howard Conklin (b. 1950 - last seen May, 1988) was an American man whose body was found in 1994 in rural southern Utah. His body remained unidentified for thirty years until the Othram genetics lab identified the subject, whose last known whereabouts were in Arizona in 1988. He died of blunt-force trauma, but the circumstances of his death and his reasons for being in Utah are uncertain.

Discovery On February 6, 1994, hikers discovered a human skull about a quarter mile south of State Road 89 near the town of Big Water, in Kane County, Utah. The skull had been wedged into a rock crevice in an isolated rural region. A subsequent search of the surrounding area revealed additional skeletal remains scattered by scavenging animals, along with several personal items. Investigators initially estimated the man died around 1985,

The skull exhibited signs of blunt force trauma, suggesting the victim was killed by a blow or stomp to the head. University of Utah anthropologist John McCullough demonstrated that the right side of the man’s face had been knocked loose from the skull as a result of the impact. Blood-soaked sand was found where the body had been dumped, further suggesting the individual may have died at that location. It was further speculated that the man's body had been dumped under a juniper tree before his remains were scattered by coyotes.