'He loved the Beatles': Body found in 1979 in Washington ID'd as Topeka-born Gary Haynie
A birth announcement published in September 1950 in The Topeka Capital-Journal told of how a 6-pound, 15-ounce baby boy had been born the previous day at St. Francis Hospital to Mr. and Mrs. Joe Condomitti.
DNA evidence enabled officials in northwest Washington last month to prove that boy subsequently grew up to be Gary Lee Haynie, the man whose skeletal remains were found in January 1979 entangled in fishing lines there.
That identification was made Feb. 10 by Matt Lacy, chief medical examiner for Snohomish County, Washington, according to that county's website.
"Gary was born in Topeka, Kansas, and traveled the world with his mother and adoptive father who was in the Air Force," that site said. "He loved the Beatles and played the piano. His parents have both passed away and the circumstances of his disappearance are not known."
More:A son vanished in 1977. A best friend disappeared 7 months ago. Two women share their stories.
'Relief and closure' for family of Gary Haynie
Haynie was born Sept. 23, 1950, as Gary Joseph Condomitti, his cousin, Texas resident Hal Thayne, told the Everett (Washington) Herald for an article published March 3.
Thayne said he felt "relief and closure" to know what happened to his cousin, whom he said had a mental disorder.
The boy's parents, Joe and Bernice Condomitti, lived at 1635 S.W. Western Ave., said the 1950 Topeka City Directory.
Thayne told the Herald that Gary's parents divorced when he was very young, and Gary took the last name of his stepfather, Sheldon Lee Haynie, when his mother remarried in about 1955.
Sheldon Haynie served in the Air Force, "so the family lived in places all across the country, from Kansas to New York City," the Herald reported.
It said Gary Haynie's mother and biological father died when he was in his teens, and Shelton Haynie lived in the Everett, Washington, area from the mid-1970s until about 1990. Gary Haynie is thought to have moved to that area with Sheldon Haynie.
"Social Security records list Haynie as having died on Christmas Eve 1976, but no surviving family members know who reported him as deceased," the Herald reported. "The family figures Sheldon Haynie lost track of his adult son around then."
Sheldon Haynie died in 1997, the newspaper said.
More:They were children when they disappeared from their Topeka-area homes. They're still missing.
Identity confirmed through DNA reference testing of half-sister
Gary Haynie was either not reported missing or — if he was — his missing person records were lost, potentially during the transition from paper to digital records, the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's office's website said.
It said a duck hunter on Jan. 3, 1979, found Gary Haynie's skeletal remains entangled in fishing line on tide flats near Spencer Island, Washington, which is between the Snohomish River and Puget Sound.
The cause and manner of death were listed as being undetermined, with law enforcement officials finding no reason to suspect foul play, the medical examiner's office's website said.
It said Haynie was buried in March 1979 at a cemetery in Everett, Washington, where his remains were exhumed in 2015.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner's office's website gives a detailed account of efforts undertaken in recent years to identify the remains, for which a DNA extract was obtained in 2021.
Haynie's identity was ultimately confirmed through DNA reference testing of his half-sister, that site said.
Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Remains found in 1979 in Washington state were of a man born in Topeka
