Investigative Partnership Leads to Identity of Stark County John Doe

(CANTON, Ohio) — The skeletal remains of a man found more than 23 years ago in Stark County have finally been identified, thanks to decades of work by investigators and the continual development of DNA technology, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Stark County Sheriff Eric Weisburn announced today.

“The answer to this mystery may have remained lost in time if not for the tenacity of investigators and the groundbreaking power of genetic genealogy,” Yost said. “My heart goes out to the family and although they finally have answers, they undoubtedly still have broken hearts.”

The man was identified as Anthony Bernard Gulley of Pontiac, Michigan, and is believed to be a homicide victim. At age 24, Gulley was reported missing in Pontiac on Sept. 11, 1994.

“For those of us at the Stark County Sheriff’s Office, we never lost sight of the fact that this unidentified man likely had a family who was missing him and didn’t know what had happened to him, and that kept us motivated,” said Sheriff Weisburn. “We are honored to have been part of the team that gave him back his name — Anthony Gulley — and provided some answers to his family.”

The same month that Gulley went missing, detectives from the Akron Police Department had been on the lookout for a 22-year-old man from Michigan named George Frederick Washington, who had childhood ties to Akron. Washington was a suspect in two rapes and an armed robbery, and investigators also suspected him in the disappearance of Gulley, whose burned car was found in Akron on Sept. 12.

Detectives surmised that Washington might have returned to the Akron area to dispose of Gulley’s body. They would never find out. On Sept. 30, Washington committed suicide as law enforcement officers attempted to take him into custody. The search for Gulley’s body continued but was unsuccessful.

Seven years later, on Dec. 22, 2001, skeletonized remains of a man who came to be known as Stark County John Doe, now identified as Gulley, were found on Trump Ave. SE in Canton. Investigators worked to identify the remains, but without the advanced DNA technology available today, the identity of the man was illusive.

On Sept. 7, 2023, in an effort to solicit tips from the public, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Stark County Sheriff’s Office unveiled a clay facial reconstruction of the man. Investigators also partnered with Ohio State University’s Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design to create digital images of what the John Doe might have looked like.

In addition to the public appeal, BCI’s forensic scientists were working behind the scenes to obtain a DNA profile from the remains. Although a profile was developed, it did not match any identities known to law enforcement through the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

Investigators then solicited the help of the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying unidentified remains using investigative genetic genealogy.

Ultimately, investigative genetic genealogy and subsequent confirmation testing identified Gulley. The answers to when and how he died – and why his body ended up in Canton only to be discovered seven years later – likely died with Washington in 1994.

Yost added, “Today – after decades as a John Doe – Anthony Gulley finally reclaims his true identity. That closure makes all the hard work worthwhile.”

Gulley is the second John Doe identified in recent years through collaboration between BCI, the Stark County Sheriff’s Office, the Stark County Coroner’s Office and the DNA Doe Project. A John Doe, whose body was found in March 2020, was identified in July 2024 as Michael Leach.

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Steve Irwin: 614-728-5417

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