Jawbone of Marine killed in 1951 found in boy's rock collection

Experts person confirmed that a quality jawbone that was mysteriously discovered successful a child's stone postulation erstwhile belonged to a United States Marine, who died during his subject work implicit 70 years ago. The recognition was made acknowledgment to the workf by a radical of assemblage students and a precocious schoolhouse intern who whitethorn beryllium the youngest idiosyncratic to assistance lick a familial genealogy case.

U.S. Marine Corps Captain Everett Leland Yager was killed successful a subject grooming workout successful July 1951, according to a news release issued this week by Ramapo College, the New Jersey instauration wherever students performed tests connected the jawbone and yet linked it backmost to him. A abstracted statement from the college's Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center noted that the subject workout progressive an airplane accident, though it did not supply much details than that.

This representation of U.S. Marine Corps Captain Everett Leland Yager appeared successful the Palmyra Spectator paper connected Dec. 20, 1944. Ramapo College

The mishap that near Yager dormant happened implicit California, and experts said his remains were recovered afterward successful the state's Riverside County and buried successful Palmyra, Missouri. It was assumed astatine the clip that each of the remains were recovered and buried. But, decades later, successful 2002, a quality jawbone containing respective teeth was submitted to section instrumentality enforcement successful bluish Arizona, wherever a boy's parents believed their kid had picked up the bony earlier mistakenly adding it to his stone collection.

The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office conducted basal DNA investigating connected the bone, officials said, though the archetypal tests did not output immoderate clues arsenic to whom the remains whitethorn person belonged. Because determination were nary samples successful authorities databases that matched the bone, their probe into the remains tagged "Rock Collection John Doe" entered a hiatus that would past different 20 years oregon so.

Sheriff's investigators and the Yavapai County Medical Examiner referred the unsolved lawsuit to the familial genealogy halfway astatine Ramapo College successful January 2023. With assistance from a Texas laboratory specializing successful missing and unidentified radical and a forensics laboratory successful Utah, the jawbone was fixed a familial illustration that could past beryllium added to genealogy databases online. 

In July of that year, students participating successful a bootcamp astatine the college, which focused connected investigative familial genealogy, were fixed the accidental to enactment the lawsuit arsenic portion of their course. Along with an intern astatine the halfway who was inactive successful precocious school, the radical of assemblage students developed a pb and sent their findings backmost to the sheriff's bureau successful Arizona. Finally, this past March, investigating connected a DNA illustration from Yager's girl was compared with the illustration from jawbone, confirming the erstwhile Marine's identity. 

"No 1 is rather definite however the jawbone ended up successful Arizona since the mishap took spot successful the aerial implicit California. One mentation is that a scavenger, specified arsenic a bird, picked it up and yet deposited it during its travels implicit Arizona," Ramapo College officials said successful this week's quality release. 

The intern who assisted past summer's pupil cohort, Ethan Schwartz, whitethorn beryllium the youngest idiosyncratic to assistance resoluteness an investigative familial genealogy case, according to the release.

In:
• Arizona
• United States Marine Corps
• California