Police: Body found at Virginia park may be that of Butler County, Mo., fugitive

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Investigators say a body found near a Virginia park may be that of a Southeast Missouri man who fled after being charged with child sodomy.

Hikers found a human skull with an apparent gunshot wound Sunday in a secluded area close to Hungry Mother State Park near Marion, Va., and officers discovered the rest of the remains Monday, the Smyth County (Va.) Sheriff's Department said.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said Wednesday that a passport and other evidence found at the scene indicate the body is likely that of John Dunivan, who went missing more than a year ago. Missouri authorities have sent forensic information to a Virginia medical examiner's office to try to confirm the identity and cause of death.

Pending that examination, the case is being treated as "a suspicious death," sheriff's department investigator Bill Eller said Wednesday.

Dunivan, the former Butler County clerk, was 61 years old when he was charged in July 2007 in neighboring Ripley County with first-degree statutory sodomy involving an 11-year-old girl.

On July 16, 2007, Dunivan mailed an envelope postmarked from Bristol, Tenn., on the Tennessee and Virginia border, according the Missouri authorities. Four days later, his Toyota truck was found on Interstate 81 near Marion.

A "wanted" bulletin issued that same day by Missouri authorities said the truck's Missouri license plates had been replaced with South Carolina ones and that some camping gear had been removed from the vehicle. The bulletin described Dunivan as suicidal and possibly armed with two handguns.

The badly decomposed body was found with a handgun nearby under several layers of brush in what appeared to be a "survivalist-type emergency shelter," Eller said. The site was about 1 1/2 miles from where his truck had been found.