KANSAS CITY, Ks.– Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents say they have positively identified the remains of a young man buried anonymously in Garnett in 1973, but the details about who murdered him and why remain a mystery.
The remains of 16 year-old Jimmy Allen Dollison were discovered April 18th, 1973, three miles southeast of Garnett off what is now 1550 Road. The KBI said Dollison had been living in Kansas City, Kansas, when he went missing sometime in October or November of 1972. Family members told investigators he was reported missing by his parents but the family never learned what happened to him.
At some point between that fall of 1972 and the spring of 1973, investigators say Dollison was murdered and his body dumped near Garnett. Scavengers had partially scattered his remains prior to them being found, but investigators recovered bone, hair, tissue and clothing items. He was found wearing a brown corduroy jacket, a green long sleeve button shirt, jeans, a black leather belt with a large belt buckle, brown hiking boots and a navy blue stocking cap. He also wore two gold rings with crosses, a ring with a number 78 and a silver chain with a large cross.
The early 1970s were big times in Kansas City. Arrowhead Stadium opened in 1972, Worlds of Fun in 1973. The Civella Family ran Kansas City organized crime with heavy involvement not just locally but also in Las Vegas casinos. KCMO was the test lab for a “Preventative Patrol Experiment” in 1972 and 1973, a national law enforcement project testing the theory that increased patrols and visibility of marked police cars and officers could reduce crime in urban areas and reduce fear of crime among the local populations. The experiment had to be stopped and restarted a number of times because some police officers believed the lack of patrols would endanger citizens. In the end, according to victim surveys, reported crime rates and arrest data as well as a survey of local businesses, the study findings determined more or less patrol and officer presence had no impact on crime or on civilian anxiety surrounding it. With corruption rooted as far back as the Pendergast era in the 1930s, the KCMO PD remains the only urban police force in the country whose board of commissioners is appointed by the governor, not local city officials.
Regardless, in the Kansas City of the early 1970s, there were still lots of ways for kids to fall in with the wrong crowd. Jimmy Dollison apparently found one, and ended up one of Garnett’s longest mysteries. Sentimental townsfolk paid for his interment in Garnett Cemetery and a custom headstone reading “Known Only To God – A Mother’s Son.”
In July 2005 as DNA technology developed, the KBI and then-Anderson County Attorney Fred Campbell obtained a court order to exhume the body for the purpose of attempting to use the new science to identify the victim. It took over four hours for officials to retrieve the skeletal remains of the body, but they were well preserved inside a vinyl bag that had been laid inside a simple wooden box for burial decades earlier. A DNA analysis was undertaken at the University of North Texas Health Center at Fort Worth, and a facial reconstruction was completed in 2008 with photos widely circulated. Still, the new work generated no new leads.
It wasn’t until grant funding became available through the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System for advanced DNA testing that a break in the 52 year-old case arose.
“I want to say back in 2021, I got with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to have some more advanced DNA testing of the remains,” Anderson County Sheriff Wes McClain said Wednesday. ‘Unfortunately, at that time the DNA testing we were wanting to have done was going to be pretty expensive for either agency to have to pay for.” McClain said the funds became available through NamUs in 2024. The advanced testing – and the money – paid off.
“Our office and the KBI were able to locate the John Doe’s siblings to conduct interviews and collect DNA from a sibling for comparison,” McClain said. “The results gave a positive identification of the 52-year-old John Doe cold case and finally identifying him as Jimmy Allen Dollison.”
“We are thankful that we can bring a little closure to the family, and they may finally lay their loved one to rest,” McClain said.
The sheriff said the investigation now turns toward deciphering clues as to Dollison’s disappearance and the last people known to have seen him alive. That part of the 52 year-old mystery is yet to be told.
Anyone who has information about the disappearance or murder of Jimmy Dollison is asked to call Anderson County Sheriff’s Office at (785) 448-5678 or the KBI at 1-800-KS-CRIME, or report tips online athttps://www.kbi.ks.gov/sar.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
