Detail from video shot by John McGrath for story on skeletal remains found at the downtown airport.

Update: Mystery Man under runway 1

January 14, 2015  |  Mike McGraw  |  1 min read

The other shoe is about to drop. New test results on skeletal remains found under a runway at Wheeler Downtown Airport are due soon. The Jackson County Medical Examiner agreed to arrange for radiocarbon testing of the remains after the Hale Center for Journalism offered to cover the $685 cost. Those results should shed important new light on the mystery of the man under Runway 1. Watch the video above for a snapshot of what we know right now. Stay tuned for the results of the testing, which we’ll write about soon.

Reading these stories is free, but telling them is not. Start your monthly gift now to support Flatland’s community-focused reporting.

Nick’s Picks | Messi, Jail, Buses, and More …

June 1, 2026

World Cup Team(s) Arrive It’s starting to feel real. The first World Cup team has landed in Kansas City. Defending champions Argentina touched down at KCI airport on Sunday and will begin practicing today at Sporting KC’s training facility in Wyandotte County. Much of the attention, of course, is focused on Lionel Messi. The soccer…

Related Stories

Blind Justice

Federal Prosecutors in KCK Under Fire For Power Plays in Pursuit of Justice

Two recent cases involving prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas City, Kansas, point to a problem that some criminal defense lawyers say has been building for a long time: For years, they say, a small group of federal prosecutors in KCK has run roughshod over the rights of criminal defendants. A joint investigation…

Read More >
A man looking at a selective service document while soldiers load a military plane on a conveyer belt

A Ledger of Names, Mine Among Them, Tell Our Vietnam Stories

All 30 of the boys listed on the Vietnam-era Selective Service ledger were born in the spring of 1948, during America’s most prolific era of mass procreation, the end of World War II. At 18 years old, the thing first and foremost on our minds was to find a way to commit the same act…

Read More >
a group of lead miners in 1900s

The Great American Immigration Debate — Minus A Century

FLAT RIVER, Mo. — This old mining town in the southeast Missouri Ozarks once straddled the richest lead deposits in the world. But it no longer exists and the name is all but forgotten — much like the riots here that shocked the nation a century ago this week. As America’s never-ending debate over immigration rages…

Read More >