DNA identifies Waltham native as man killed in 1982 fatal hit-and-run in Ohio

More than 40 years after his death, man identified as Charles Joseph Nunnenman III

After more than four decades of mystery, a man killed in a 1982 hit-and-run crash in Ohio has been identified as then-41-year-old Charles Joseph Nunnenman III, a Waltham native who later lived in Los Angeles.

The identification was announced this week by the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit that uses genetic genealogy to help law enforcement identify unnamed victims of crime and tragedy. Nunnenman, long known only as “Western Reserve Road John Doe,” was struck and killed by a car on Aug. 12, 1982, in Boardman, a suburb of Youngstown, Ohio. The driver fled the scene but later turned herself in.

Despite local press coverage and a distinctive tattoo, Nunnenman’s body went unidentified for decades. Investigators found no identification and little to link him to his past.

That changed when the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office turned to the DNA Doe Project for help. With funding from the Porchlight Project, an Ohio nonprofit dedicated to cold cases, genetic genealogists built a DNA profile and began searching for family connections through public databases.

Initial results pointed toward Irish ancestry. But a closer match later revealed ties to Massachusetts — and eventually to Nunnenman, who was born in Waltham in 1941. Investigators traced his lineage back to a man born in Ireland in 1836 and confirmed his identity after contacting Nunnenman’s niece, Natalie Bauerle of Florida, who provided a DNA sample.

While records show Nunnenman spent part of the 1960s in Los Angeles, his later life remained a mystery. Investigators have not said why or how he ended up in Ohio.

The Waltham Times has not located any family members who may still be in the Waltham area. 

The DNA Doe Project thanked the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, the Porchlight Project and other collaborators for helping “bring Charles Joseph Nunnenman home, at last.”

Based in California, the DNA Doe Project has helped solve more than 150 cases across the country, returning names to unidentified human remains through the work of volunteer genealogists.