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Sheriff's Office looking for help in ID'ing skeletal remains
Christine Steele/Sun-News
Posted: 03/11/2012 08:38:40 PM MDT

SILVER CITY The Grant County Sheriff s Department is seeking help in identifying the human remains found in the Gomez Peak area earlier this year.

On Jan. 19, a hiker found what appeared to be a lower jawbone, on a trail on Gomez Peak. About a week later, a Forest Service employee found another bone near the area where the first bone was found. The second bone was determined to be a femur, the medical investigator said. In early February, the Sheriff's Office, the medical investigator, members of the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Border Patrol conducted a search of the area and discovered additional human remains. A forensic anthropologist then came from the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque to investigate the find.

According to the preliminary analysis, the bones belonged to a human male, approximately six feet tall and weighing 200 pounds. Now, the Sheriff s Department is releasing photos of some jewelry that were found with the remains, that might help to identify the man, along with more details from the forensic anthropologists report.

The bones have been determined to be from a male between the ages of 23 to 59 years old, probably likely in his 30s or 40s or possibly early 50s. Ancestry could not be determined due to a lack of craniofacial bones, the report said. Approximate height between 5 10 and 6 7 . His hair color is brown. He had some kind of injury to his right knee that was surgically repaired. He has a screw in the front of the right shin bone (tibia) and in the back of the right thigh bone (femur).

Time since death is difficult to estimate, the report noted, but is likely months to one year, and probably on the shorter end of that.

Two pieces of jewelry were found with the remains. On his right ring finger, the man was wearing a Hawaii Titanium ring with wood (likely Koa wood) and lapis inlays. On the inside of the ring is Ti inscribed within an outline of Hawaii s Big Island. The band is approximately 8mm wide.

A necklace was also found with the remains. The necklace is a string of green stone beads, probably malachite or a similar stone. There is no clasp. The remains have been ruled out as not those of David Ristovski, the California man who went missing down near Steins last year right around this time. A forensic odontologist excluded the remains as those of missing person Ristovski.

Anyone with information that might help to identify the man should call the Grant County Sheriff s Department, either Lt. Michael Aguirre at (575) 574-0103 or Sgt. Chris Ponce at (575) 574-0151.