Kings County Sheriff seeks help in identifying remains found near Corcoran

On Wednesday, May 13, 2015, Deputies received a report of human remains located along the 42000 block of 6th Ave in Corcoran.  Kings County Sheriff's Detectives took over the investigation and verified the presence of human remains. 

The remains of an unidentified female adult were located wrapped in a tarp and dumped along 6th Ave near the Homeland Canal in southern Kings County approximately 15 miles south of Corcoran and 5 miles north of the Kern County line. 

The remains were in an advance stage of decomposition and it appeared the body had been deceased for several months.  Due to the advanced stages of decomposition, detectives were unable to recover any fingerprints or any other identifying characteristics. 

The victim was wearing a light colored, horizontally stripped t-shirt, black loose-fitting yoga type pants, and Depends type underwear.

Over the past few months, Kings County Sheriff's Detectives have been reviewing missing person’s cases throughout the state in an attempt to determine the identity of the victim, but have been unsuccessful in positively identifying her. 

The victim's DNA has also been uploaded into the California Department of Justice database for missing persons and there have been no matches up to this point. 

A forensic anthropologist conducted an examination of the remains and determined the victim is an older-adult female, of European decent, well over 45 years and most likely well over 60 years old.  The victim may have been between 5-foot to 5-foot 6 inches tall and likely had gray or graying blond hair. 

The victim had no teeth and it appeared she was prepped for a full set of upper and lower dentures; however, no dentures were located.   

The anthropologist also determined the victim had severe osteoporosis and believes if the victim was mobile, she would have likely been hunched over.  However, there's a good chance the victim was bed-ridden.  The anthropologist also noted an old fracture of the nose which resulted in a slight skewing of the nose to the left. 

Additionally, an old fracture of the pelvic area was noted possibly due to an impact to the pelvis, possibly indicative of significant trauma earlier in life. 

Based on the condition of the remains at the time of the anthropologist’s examination, the anthropologist believes the time of death to be somewhere between six weeks to one year.  The estimated time of death is somewhere between May, 2014 and April, 2015.              

Up to this point in the investigation, Detectives have been unable to identify the victim.  Subsequently, Detectives reached out to a non-profit organization, “Can You Identify Me?” to have a facial reconstruction completed.  Jane Billingham, the forensic art program manager completed the reconstruction during a live forensic art exhibit at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Anyone with any information regarding this case, is urged to contact Detective Weimer with the Kings County Sheriff's Office with any of the following methods:

(559) 852-2804 - Desk

(559) 362-1758 - Cell phone and text messaging

samuel.weimer@co.kings.ca.us  

More information regarding Can You Identify Me can be found at www.canyouidentifyme.org.