A jawbone found in a child's rock collection has been identified as belonging to U.S. Marine Corps Captain Everett Leland Yager, who died during a military training exercise over 70 years ago. The breakthrough in identification was made possible by a team of college students and a high school intern, possibly the youngest individual to contribute to solving an investigative genetic genealogy case.
Captain Yager lost his life in a military training accident in July 1951, as revealed in a news release from Ramapo College. The institution, located in New Jersey, where the testing on the jawbone took place, confirmed the link to Captain Yager. The Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center at the college mentioned that the training exercise involved an airplane incident, although specific details were not disclosed. More information can be found in the official news release and statement from the college.
Tragedy struck over California when Yager lost his life in an accident. His remains were later found in Riverside County, California, and laid to rest in Palmyra, Missouri. Initially, it was believed that all remains had been recovered and buried. However, in 2002, a human jawbone with several teeth was turned in to local authorities in northern Arizona. The bone had been mistakenly added to a boy's rock collection by his parents.
The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office conducted basic DNA testing on the jawbone, but the results did not provide any leads on the identity of the remains. With no matches in government databases, the case of the "Rock Collection John Doe" went unsolved for about 20 years.
In January 2023, Sheriff's investigators and the Yavapai County Medical Examiner sought assistance from the genetic genealogy center at Ramapo College. Collaborating with a Texas laboratory specializing in missing persons and an forensics lab in Utah, a genetic profile was created for the jawbone. This profile was then added to online genealogy databases for further investigation.
The Case of the Missing Marine: How College Students Helped Solve a Decades-Old Mystery
During a summer bootcamp at a college, students focused on investigative genetic genealogy had the opportunity to work on a cold case. With the help of an intern from the center, a group of college students developed a lead and shared their findings with the sheriff's office in Arizona. In March, DNA testing confirmed the identity of the missing Marine, thanks to a sample from his daughter.
Officials from Ramapo College shared a fascinating theory about how the Marine's jawbone ended up in Arizona, despite the accident occurring in California. They suggested that a scavenger, like a bird, may have carried the bone and eventually dropped it during its journey over Arizona.
Ethan Schwartz, the intern who assisted the student cohort, is believed to be one of the youngest individuals to contribute to solving an investigative genetic genealogy case, according to a recent news release.
