Records needed to identify skeleton

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

The suspected identity of a human skeleton found near Hungry Mother State Park last weekend remains unconfirmed by a forensic examination, according to Smyth County Sheriff’s Investigator Johnny Joannou.
Joannou said Friday the examiner in Roanoke was awaiting records requested from Missouri. Joannou said he did not know specifically what documents had been sought, but “I’m sure they’ll include dental records.”
Authorities here think the remains are those of Johnnie L. Dunivan, a man wanted in Missouri and reported to be in the Marion area last summer. Warrants for Dunivan are outstanding in Missouri in connection with an investigation of the deviant sexual assault of a child in Butler County, according to a wanted poster issued by Missouri authorities last summer.
Dunivan’s Toyota truck was found near Exit 47 at Marion in July 2007. Virginia State Police linked the vehicle to Dunivan. Officers heard reports from campers that said Dunivan was seen in the park, Smyth County Sheriff David Bradley said.
The wanted poster said when Dunivan’s vehicle was found, his Missouri license plates had been replaced by South Carolina plates, and the truck had “some camping items,” but was previously “loaded down with camping gear.”
This latest phase in the Dunivan investigation began late Sunday after hikers found a skull in a secluded area on private property about 100 yards off a state park trail, Bradley said. The hikers, who asked not to be publicly identified, reported the find to park authorities who secured the area and called the sheriff’s office, he said.
Detectives recovered the skull Sunday that showed what appeared to be a single gunshot wound. Investigators conducted a grid search of the area the following morning and found a passport issued to Dunivan in the vicinity of the skull’s discovery, Bradley said.
The remainder of the skeleton was found nearby under a tarp and brush Bradley characterized as a lean-to shelter. A handgun and other personal effects were recovered with the skeleton, he said.
The Missouri wanted poster said Dunivan was “suicidal and may be armed. Warrants have been issued for the subject, Johnnie Dunivan. Dunivan is aware of the investigation and is suicidal.”
Bradley asked that anyone who came into contact with Dunivan to call the sheriff’s office at 782-4056.
The discovery of the skull, widely but incorrectly reported to have been found inside the park, has been a common topic of conversation in the community this week, but the park itself has avoided undue attention, according to Hungry Mother State Park Chief Ranger Glen Moorer.
“We haven’t heard a whole lot about it,” Moorer said,” just the usual, like people saying, ‘I’m glad we didn’t find it. It would have scared us to death.’”