Officials: Former Butler County clerk whose remains were found in Virginia committed suicide

Virginia authorities have determined a former Butler County clerk accused of sodomizing a young girl died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

"According to Bill Eller with the Smyth County Sheriff's Department, the medical examiner in Roanoke (Va.) has issued a death certificate" for Johnnie Dunivan, said Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Phil Gregory, who received the notification Friday afternoon.

"The manner of death is suicide [and] the cause of death is a gunshot wound to the head."

Remains found earlier this month near Hungry Mother State Park in Marion, Va., were positively identified through the use of dental records as Dunivan, Gregory earlier said.

Highway patrol investigators had been asked to forward forensic information to the chief medical examiner's office in Roanoke to either identify or exclude Dunivan after a human skull was discovered Aug. 31 by hikers on private property near a remote area of the park.

The skull, according to authorities, was located about a mile and a half from where Dunivan's red 2000 Toyota Tacoma was found along Interstate 81, on the western edge of Virginia near Marion. The truck had been found July 20, 2007, by a Virginia State Police officer, who was checking on an abandoned vehicle.

The rest of the skeleton was found Sept. 1 by investigators under several layers of brush in what appeared to be a "makeshift survival shelter," Eller earlier said.

A revolver and a passport were found near the remains, Eller said. The passport later was identified as belonging to Dunivan.

Authorities had been searching for Dunivan since a warrant was issued for the then 60-year-old's arrest on July 12, 2007.

Dunivan, who had served as Butler County clerk for 20 years before retiring in 2006, was charged with the unclassified felony of first-degree statutory sodomy in Ripley County. He is accused of having "deviate sexual intercourse" with a then 11-year-old girl on June 29, 2007.