DECORAH, Iowa (WKBT) — Remains of a man found in Winneshiek County 40 years ago have finally been identified, giving a grieving Ohio family the answers they had long waited for.
Clifton “Todd” Womack, 28, left his mother’s home in Eastlake, Ohio, on April 5, 1985, saying he was going out to look for a job. He never returned. His remains were found in a rural Winneshiek County hay barn in March 1986, but despite two autopsies and a clay facial reconstruction at Mayo Clinic, he could not be identified. He was buried at Freeport Cemetery near Decorah.
Deputy Cole Tweten, who joined the sheriff’s office in 2022, secured funding, permits, and legal authorization to exhume the grave in April 2026 with the goal of getting DNA. The remains were well preserved. A forensic anthropologist matched dental X-rays to Womack through the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database on June 11. DNA analysis confirmed the identification through a biological connection to Womack’s brother, Terry, who had submitted his DNA to the database years earlier…