SANTA BARBARA – California Department of Justice criminalists are assisting the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office in identifying body parts that were discovered in the water on July 24 and July 26, 2018. Criminalists are gathering DNA evidence from the remains, processing it and then running it in a data base in an effort to confirm the remains are that of one person and who that person was.
On July 24th, human remains, a head and a torso, were found in the ocean at Camino Pescadero Park in Isla Vista. Two days later, additional human remains, a femur, fibula and tibia, were found on the shoreline at Campus Point near UC Santa Barbara. Due to the level of decomposition, it is difficult for the coroner’s office to conclude an age, sex or identity.
“California Department of Justice criminalists will extract DNA from the remains and will work to help law enforcement and medical examiners reach some type of conclusion in this investigation,” said California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA) President Alan Barcelona. “These highly trained and educated criminalists are invaluable to law enforcement and investigations of this nature.”
The coroner’s office is conducting an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death to determine a cause and manner of death.
