Clifton Todd Womack was a 28-year-old man last seen on April 5, 1985, in Eastlake, Ohio, where he was living with his mother. Earlier missing-person records listed him as an endangered missing adult and described him as 5 feet 8 inches tall, about 130 pounds, with brown hair, brown eyes, and a scar on his left forearm. Those records also noted that he may have needed medication for unspecified reasons. For years, the public details of his disappearance were sparse: he was last seen in Eastlake and was never heard from again.
More recent reporting from the Winneshiek County, Iowa investigation provided the fuller story behind what happened after Clifton left home. According to accounts released after his identification, Clifton, who went by Todd, told his mother, Peggy Jo Womack, that he was going out to look for a job. He did not return. His family reported him missing to the Eastlake Police Department, and his mother provided dental records in the hope that they might someday help identify him. His siblings later said Clifton lived with schizophrenia and relied on medication, and they also said the family had previously lived in California, a detail that would become important decades later.
In March 1986, nearly a year after Clifton disappeared from Ohio, a rural resident in Winneshiek County, Iowa, discovered the body of an unidentified man in a hay barn. The man was found under a blanket, wedged between large hay bales. Contemporary investigative details later connected the unidentified man to a reported hitchhiker who had appeared in the area after midnight in April 1985, saying he was from Ohio and trying to get to California. Authorities noted that the temperature that night was very cold, and years later Clifton's family confirmed that California was a meaningful destination because the family had once lived there.
At the time the body was found, investigators were unable to identify him. The remains were examined, and the skull was taken to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where a clay facial reconstruction was created, but no identification was made. The unidentified man was eventually buried at Freeport Cemetery near Decorah before DNA testing was available. The case remained unresolved for decades, leaving Clifton's family without answers. His mother died in the late 1980s without knowing what had happened to her youngest son, while his siblings continued to live with uncertainty and hope that he would one day be found.
The break in the case came through renewed work by the Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office and advances in forensic science. Deputy Cole Tweten obtained permission to exhume the unidentified remains for DNA testing, and the remains were taken to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Crime Lab for analysis. Investigators compared dental records and DNA, including a DNA sample Clifton's brother had submitted to NamUs years earlier. In 2026, forensic analysis and genealogy confirmed that the unidentified man found in the Iowa barn was Clifton Todd Womack. Authorities reported that his cause and manner of death remain undetermined, but the Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office stated there was no evidence of criminal activity and considered the case closed.
Official reports indicate that Clifton Womack has been found deceased. His case began as the disappearance of a young man who left his Eastlake home and never returned, then became a decades-long unidentified-remains case in rural Iowa. The final identification did not answer every question about how he died, but it did restore his name, return the truth of his whereabouts to his family, and close a painful chapter that had lasted more than forty years. In overview, Clifton's case is one of a vulnerable missing man, a family that searched and waited across generations, and investigators who were ultimately able to use preserved records, DNA, and persistence to bring him home.
Last Seen: Apr 05, 1985
