Human remains found in Mendocino County identified as man missing since 1986
Human remains discovered in rural Mendocino County in 2012 have been identified as a 21-year-old man reported missing in Washington state in 1986, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office said Monday.
On Oct. 30, 2012, the Sheriff's Office received a phone call about human remains being discovered in a shallow grave along the Eel River near Piercy, an unincorporated community in northern Mendocino County near the border with Humboldt County.
According to the Sheriff's Office, detectives met with the reporting party in Piercy, who provided the detectives photographs and a plastic bag containing footbones.
Forensic anthropologists from California State University Chico conducted an excavation, examination and preservation of the remains.
The anthropologists concluded that the remains were human and had been in the shallow grave for many years. The head was missing from the site. Partial articles of clothing were also found in the grave, which dated to the 1980s.
A homicide investigation was launched by the Sheriff's Office, which named the remains John Doe. After multiple attempts to identify the remains, the investigation became a cold case.
In 2024, the case was reopened by the Sheriff's Office and the remains were sent to Othram, a forensics lab in The Woodlands, Texas. Othram uses genome sequencing from DNA to identify human remains.
The remains were a match with Warren David Hawkins, who was reported missing in July 1986 in Washington. He was last seen when his mother dropped him and another unidentified male off at a bus station, said the Sheriff's Office.
The DNA used to identify the remains were obtained from Paula Hawkins, the sister of Warren David Hawkins who reported her brother missing to the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office in Washington.
The investigation into Hawkin's death remains open as a homicide. Anyone with information related to the case is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 707-463-4086.