Advances in technology have enabled genetic genealogy experts to identify partial remains. The jawbone, containing several teeth, belonged to US Marine Corps Captain, Everett Leland Yager, who reportedly died in a military training exercise in July of 1951. Mysteriously, the bone was discovered in Arizona, over 1000 miles away from where Yager died. The experts who identified the partial remains were from The Ramapo College of New Jersey’s Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center.
The genealogists believe a bird may have picked up the jawbone and flown it cross-country. Yager’s rock collection, now famous, was inherited from his grandfather. The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office in Northern Arizona referred the peculiar case to the Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center. Here, participants examined various DNA databases to identify Yager as the discovered remains, ultimately using DNA from his living relatives to successfully confirm the identity.
This case marked the first resolution for the student boot camp. The staff and students were confused when the candidate of Mr. Yager was proposed, as the circumstances of his death were already known, and he had a documented military funeral burial. “This case would have remained unresolved, the mystery would have stayed in Yavapai County.
