Authorities are seeking the public’s help after they announced they have identified a “John Doe” who was found murdered over 30 years ago along the border of Lake and Kenosha counties.
The Kenosha County Medical Examiner’s Office and the Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin Police Department announced this week they had made a positive identification in a John Doe homicide investigation from 1993.
The agencies used technology that was not available at the time of the incident to positively identify Ronald Louis Dodge, who was born on December 27, 1952, in Keshena, Wisconsin on the Menominee Indian Reservation.
Dodge’s remains have been returned to his family on the Menominee Reservation in northeastern Wisconsin.
Pleasant Prairie Police Chief David Smetana says his department is now actively seeking tips in the reopened homicide investigation since the victim’s identification has been made.
“The Kenosha County Medical Examiner’s Office remains committed to identifying those individuals who do not have their name,” said Kenosha County Medical Examiner Patrice Hall.
“In my almost 20-year career in working in death investigation, Ronald’s case has proven to be the most difficult to solve. I am humbled to have the honor of giving Ronald back his name, reuniting him with his family, and bringing the Dodge family the answers they have been looking for all of these years,” Hall said.
Dodge’s body was found on August 27, 1993, in an advanced state of decomposition alongside the Soo Line — now Canadian Pacific — rail tracks in Pleasant Prairie near the Illinois border.
Dodge was buried in St. John’s Cemetery in Randall, Wisconsin.
Hall resumed the investigation in December 2014 after learning that the Pleasant Prairie Police Department had retained the John Doe’s skull as evidence.
Over the ensuing nine-plus years, the Kenosha County Medical Examiner’s Office and the Pleasant Prairie Police Department worked with numerous agencies throughout the United States in an ongoing effort to identify the individual.
Allen Dodge contacted the medical examiner in June 2023 and informed her that his brother, Ronald Dodge, had been missing since May 8, 1993.
With the new information, DNA samples were obtained from Allen and another sibling and DNA confirmed Ronald Dodge’s identity.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), the Michigan State Police Crime Lab, the DNA Doe Project and Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Janamarie Truesdell assisted in making the positive identification.
Hall said it was determined Dodge was a victim of homicide.
No suspects, persons of interest or leads have been identified, Smetana said.
“Our work now continues in the case as new forensic testing has determined that Ronald Dodge suffered a gunshot wound near the time of his death,” Smetana said.
“Our detectives are requesting anyone with any information on this case to come forward and help our agency in bringing justice to the Dodge family,” the police chief added.
It was determined Dodge was married and was possibly living on the north side of Chicago at the time of his death.
Dodge’s wife, Kathryn Erickson, died in Chicago in November 1993.
Anyone with any information that might be helpful in the renewed homicide investigation is encouraged to contact the Pleasant Prairie Police Department at 262-948-8910 or by email at [email protected].
Anonymous tips may also be submitted to Kenosha Area Crime Stoppers by calling 262-656-7333 or 800-807-8477.