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Authorities ask scientist for help in bones mystery By Mark Freeman YREKA, Calif. � Investigators will turn this week to a Northern California anthropologist to help unearth a mystery locked inside a set of human bones found Saturday southwest of town. Three Scott Valley hunters stumbled upon the scattered skeletal remains off a dirt road about seven miles southwest of Yreka, and police found few clues as to who the person was or how the body got there, authorities said. The bones will be sent this week to a Chico State University anthropologist who will be asked to determine the skeleton�s sex, possible age, and length of time it has been in the woods, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff�s Department. The anthropologist also may be able to tell how long the person has been dead and whether there was trauma to the bones � a key fact in determining if the case is a homicide or a death investigation of a missing person. "(Detectives) are hoping those are some of the questions the anthropologist will help us with," sheriff�s department spokesperson Susan Gravenkamp said Monday. "It�s still all a mystery to us," Gravenkamp said. "Hopefully, we�ll get some answers." The questions all began about 1:15 p.m. when three deer hunters on private property on Forest Mountain southwest of Yreka stumbled upon what appeared to be human remains about 50 to 75 yards off a dirt road on the south side of Highway 3. The hunters telephoned sheriff�s deputies, who responded to the scene. The deputies said the remains appeared to have been there for "quite some time," Gravenkamp said, adding there was no sign of trauma. Police also found a gray baseball cap with a T on the front, blue jeans, black sweats, a grayish-blue jacket, a red and white striped shirt, and a sweater at the scene, police said. Also found were a wallet, with no identification, in a small canvas bag, a few cigarettes and several plastic water bottles, police said. The bones were later determined to be human, Gravenkamp said. The evidence at the scene ruled out a 52-year-old Dorris man who has been missing since July 1998, Gravenkamp said. That man was last seen more than two years ago in Yreka, she said. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.