BONNEVILLE COUNTY, IDAHO (KID) – The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office has partnered with Othram Laboratories to help identify human remains found in the Palisades area.
The human remains were found at the Palisade Reservoir in September of 2002. A man walking his dog near the reservoir came upon what appeared to be part of a human skull. Bonneville County Sheriff’s Deputies responded and searched the surrounding area. The search recovered additional pieces of a tailbone, pelvic bone, and vertebrae.
Pathologists examined the remains and concluded the partial skull most likely belonged to a male between 25 and 45 years of age. The remains were also substantially weathered, which suggests they may have been in the reservoir 15 to 20 years before their discovery. Further FBI DNA testing revealed the skull and pelvic bone pieces belonged to the same person.
In effort to identify the remains, Deputies researched past drowning cases from 1978 to 1998 where bodies had not been recovered. One incident of interest happened in 1980, when four people drowned after their boat capsized about 100 yards from the shore. The victims were two 38 year-old-men and two children, ages 7 and 10. While this accidental drowning has been a focus of the investigation, Deputies haven’t ruled out the remains belonging to victims of a separate crime or incident.
In an effort to solve this case, the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office has partnered with Othram Inc., a private laboratory that examines forensic evidence with advanced DNA testing. Othram Inc. has been assisting law enforcement across the country in analyzing evidence and helping investigators solve cases.
The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office says they hope that partnering with Othram Inc., via their www.DNASolves.com website, and asking for help from the community, will provide the identifying information needed to determine what happened to the victim.
Anyone that may have information on this case, or family ties to missing/unrecovered persons in the Palisades Reservoir area between 1978 and 2002 is asked to contact Sgt. Karl Noah with the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office at 208-529-1375.
Further details about Othram Inc., DNASolves.com, and their research on this case can be found online at https://dnasolves.com/articles/bonneville_county_john_doe/ .
A fund has been created on this site to help cover the costs of examination and help expedite the identification of these remains. The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office has contributed $1000 to this funding campaign and asks the public to help aide in this effort to solve this case.