Skull discovery may end fugitive hunt

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Police think a human skull found on private property adjacent to Hungry Mother State Park may be that of a man wanted by Missouri authorities and believed to have been in the Marion area last summer.
Hikers found the skull in a secluded area about 100 yards off a park trail late Sunday, said Smyth County Sheriff David Bradley. The hikers, who Bradley said asked not to be publicly identified, reported the find to park authorities, who secured the area and called the sheriff’s office.
Detectives recovered the skull they believe exhibits damage from a single gunshot wound, Bradley said.
Investigators Johnny Joannou and Billy Eller, with deputies Alan Morgan and Mark Harrington, conducted a grid search of the area the following morning, Bradley said. They found a passport in the vicinity of the skull’s discovery.
The passport was issued to Johnnie L. Dunivan, wanted on warrants by Missouri State Highway Patrol and whose Toyota truck was found near Exit 47 in July 2007.
After several hours of searching Monday, Bradley said, Morgan found human remains under several layers of brush through which only a tarpaulin and a pair of boots were visible.
The officers worked several more hours removing debris from what investigators believe was a constructed shelter, before the skeletal human remains could be collected, the sheriff said.
“It looked like he was using it as a lean-to,” Bradley said.
The skull was found about 30 yards from the rest of the remains, possibly disturbed from its place by animals, Bradley said.
Among the items recovered with the remains was a handgun, Bradley said. A wanted poster issued by Missouri law enforcement officials said Dunivan was “suicidal and may be armed.”
“The Missouri State Highway Patrol is investigating the deviant sexual assault of a child in Butler County,” the poster said. “Warrants have been issued for the subject, Johnnie Dunivan. Dunivan is aware of the investigation and is suicidal.”
Virginia State Police responded to a call July 20, 2007, about an abandoned vehicle at Exit 47 they later linked to Dunivan. Leads suggested Dunivan was in the Hungry Mother State Park area. Officers heard reports from campers that said Dunivan was seen in the park, 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The wanted poster said when Dunivan’s vehicle was found, his Missouri license plates had been replaced by South Carolina plates, and the truck had “some camping items,” but was previously “loaded down with camping gear.”
Bradley said the remains have not been positively identified as Dunivan’s, but his family is being alerted to the possibility they are in fact his.
The sheriff said his office is working with Missouri investigators to provide a forensic laboratory with material needed to identify or exclude the remains as Dunivan’s.