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| CAF0602??; Eureka, Humboldt Co. | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 2 2009, 12:32 PM (355 Views) | |
| tatertot | Jan 2 2009, 12:32 PM Post #1 |
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http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_11324220 Investigating bones of lost people Sean Garmire/The Times-Standard Posted: 12/28/2008 01:33:47 AM PST When the bone settled at the top of the quarry's sifting equipment, the workers weren't sure if it belonged to a person. After all, it's not every day skeletal remains are found in Scotia. The sun-bleached leg bone was found Nov. 6 and Humboldt County Deputy Coroner Roy Horton said no one is certain how long it sat entombed in gravel along the Eel River. No one knows who it belongs to. But Horton said the femur has been sent to the California Department of Justice laboratories where forensic scientists will attempt to cross reference its DNA with the agency's database of missing persons. The finding of a nameless femur is nothing new for the Humboldt County Coroner's Office. Since 2006, it is the third such bone discovered in Humboldt County -- none of which have yet been identified. ”We get a lot of bone calls in Humboldt County,” Horton said. “Every once in a while, it turns out to be human.” Femurs are the longest, and one of the strongest, bones in the body. As such, Horton said they are resistant to weathering, and sometimes turn up when other skeletal remains have since eroded away. Following a preliminary examination, Horton said investigators believe the left femur found in the Scotia gravel quarry likely belonged to a male, more than 20 years old, standing between 5 foot 7 inches and 5 foot 11 inches tall. It is not yet certain how long the bone spent underground, but Horton said it was probably there for “years.” There are a number of missing people in Humboldt County who match that description, and Horton said although they have some possible suspects, the Coroner's Office is waiting for an examination at the DOJ labs. There's no telling whether that examination will identify the bone's owner, however, and it may take years just to find out that much, Horton said. In February 2006, another human femur was found by workers clearing brush on 14th Street in Eureka. The bone was promptly sent to the DOJ labs, where scientists eventually took a bone core sample to see if its DNA matched anything they had on file. There were no positive matches, Horton said. After two years, the right leg bone was returned to the Coroner's Office on Dec. 8, with only the added knowledge that it belonged to a woman between the ages of 25 and 40, who stood between 5 feet 5 inches and 5 feet 11 inches tall. It appears, Horton said, the woman died more than 10 years ago. The bone's DNA, however, was kept on record at the DOJ lab. Deputy Coroner Charlie Van Buskirk said if any of the missing person's closely related family members submit a swab of their DNA for the laboratory's files, the DOJ technicians may be able to match the bone to a name. ”If there's a match on it, they'll hit on it right away,” Horton said. “It's like a fingerprint file.” Before that bone was returned, another femur -- this time a left -- was discovered in the same area along 14th Street. The femurs may be a matching pair from the same skeleton, but Van Buskirk said the DOJ lab analysis will provide the proof. The patterns of weathering on the mottled femurs are consistent with bones that have spent time in a grave, and Van Buskirk said coroners are not ruling out the possibility they were taken from a mausoleum or grave. The Coroner's Office has identified at least three other sets of human remains this year. In February the bones of Robert Cunningham Powers, a 46-year-old man who went missing in 2000 after walking away from a hospital, were identified. Skeletal remains scattered in an isolated forest in Whitethorn were identified later in June as 65-year-old Janice Potter, who was reported missing in February. A skeleton, found in a forested area of Cutten, was identified through U.S. Navy dental records as belonging to Todd Robertson, a 32-year-old transient who went missing two years before. Van Buskirk said while unidentified human bones may occasionally show up in his office, there is little hope in significantly reducing the heavy stack of files that makes up the missing persons' reports. To demonstrate, he placed on his desk -- next to the towering pile of missing persons -- the slim file of “found persons.” ”Think about how many people are missing, and how many people are actually found,” he said. |
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2:27 PM Jul 11