On a fall afternoon in 1992, a suspicious dumping is reported by some early morning

hunters in the foothills of Virginia. Within 20 minutes, Henry County Detective Ronnie Minter walks into the woods to investigate.

I came out and stopped and walked up this logging road and went up to where this pile of wood and a couch was and underneath this you could

see the deteriorating head of a human bed.

The head is attached to the body of a man wrapped in a bed sheet and badly

decomposed. Officer Minter wastes no time calling homicide.

It was obvious that he didn't get under this pile of wood by himself. We handle this from the

very beginning as a homicide because of the circumstances.

Investigators need to put a name to their victim. They follow the body to the

county morgue, hoping an examination of the corpse itself

will provide them with an answer. On the morning of October 3rd, Captain Kimmy Nester

examines Henry County's John Doe.

The body is extremely badly decomposed,

as bad as any of ever seen in my 20-some year career.

Fingerprints offer Nesta the best chance of putting a name to the corpse, that is if the captain is able to salvage a print from the rapidly decomposing hands.

We were concerned that prior to the body being delivered on Monday to the medical examiner that the skin

tissue might be further deteriorated or damaged or destroyed. Therefore the

decision was made to collect it at the morgue versus let it wait to the time the autopsy actually occurred.

Using an exacto knife, Nester cuts above the first layer of John Doe's skin called the

epidermal glove. He then slips the transparent skin off John Doe's right hand and into a jar of formaldehyde.

The fingertips are sent 50 miles north to the medical examiner's office in Rollinuck.

Forensic scientist Lyle Shaver is given the task of evaluating John Doe's

...