A Kansas City man has been identified as the victim in a 1984 homicide in Arkansas, the Arkansas State Police announced Thursday.

The Arkansas State Police Cold Case Unit has identified Earl James McDaniel, a 53-year-old man originally from Kansas City, Missouri, in the Arkansas homicide in a county east of Little Rock.

Arkansas Department of Transportation workers discovered his body about 4.5 miles west of Carlisle in Lonoke County on Oct. 30, 1984.

McDaniel's body was sent to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory, where the autopsy revealed the cause of death to be strangulation. However, the investigation has remained idle for the past 40 years due to difficulties identifying the victim.

The Arkansas State Police Cold Case Unit began reviewing the case in March 2024 and submitted remains to Othram Labs, a specialized DNA and genealogy testing facility in Texas, in September.

After reviewing the remains, the labs tentatively identified the remains as McDaniel's on Jan. 27, 2025. The lab also identified a potential family member in Washington state.

While working with the Washington State Attorney General's Office Cold Case Unit, Arkansas State Police investigators located McDaniel's daughter. Her DNA was submitted to the lab, and on Feb. 24, the lab successfully confirmed McDaniel's identity.

The investigation showed that McDaniel was incarcerated in Washington state in the 1960s and was paroled in Oklahoma in the early 1980s with several arrests throughout the country.

The circumstances regarding McDaniel's homicide remain under investigation by Arkansas State Police.

The Cold Case Unit is asking anyone with information related to this case to contact .