John Doe No. 3 is John Doe no more.
His name, according to a cold case breakthrough from the Solano County Sheriff’s Department, was Donald Horecka.
Horecka’s body has been linked through forensic investigation to an adult male body found in 1980 in a creek bed off of Lopes Road in Benicia, according to a release from the department on Tuesday.
“The investigation into John Doe’s identity and the circumstances surrounding his death continued for several months, but he was ultimately laid to rest without being identified. The investigation did reveal he died as a result of Corrosive Esophagitis, which results from ingesting a chemical substance not meant for human consumption.”
According to the department, Horecka went missing in the late 1970s or early 1980s from his home city of Las Vegas, Nevada. He was 25 at the time of disappearance, but his remains were finally linked to his identity through advances in DNA technology and genetic forensic testing.
The case was reopened in 2023 as part of the Doe Cold Case Project. The department provided facial reconstructions of Horecka in the press release.
The Cold Case Project, which involves exhuming the unidentified remains of people named Jane or John Doe by the department in the past, is a moniker used by law enforcement instead of an identity. Sheriff-Coroner Thomas A. Ferrara expressed hope that, through up-to-date identification methods, investigators will be able to give their “names and identities back and provide their families some form and level of closure.”
“The Solano County Coroner’s Office extends our thanks to Forensic Artist PJ Puterbaugh, Othram Inc., the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, and the California Department of Justice for their invaluable assistance in identifying Mr. Horecka,” the release reads. “Their expertise, assistance, and dedication have been instrumental in this process.”