BATTLE CREEK (WKZO-AM) — The family of a Battle Creek man who went missing three decades ago now know his fate. The disappearance of troubled army vet Charles Cornell remained a mystery because of an oversite.
Cornell left his Battle Creek apartment and disappeared in 1986. He was never listed as missing because his departure was considered voluntary.
Four years later, when Cornell was struck and killed along a highway in Arkansas with no ID, he remained a John Doe, because he didn’t appear on any missing person’s data base.
That oversight was recently corrected, a DNA sample submitted and the match made with the dead man in Arkansas. The remains will be returned to the family after all these years.
The State Police says any family with missing members who haven’t updated their missing persons file to include DNA should do so.
