Teen Whose Remains Were Found in 1993 Is Finally IDed

Three decades after leg bones turned up at a Southern California dump site, investigators finally know the victim's name. SFGate reports that DNA testing has identified the remains, found in 1993 in Camarillo, as those of Joseph Patrick Reardon, born in Fresno in 1970, according to authorities in Ventura County. Reardon's parents were teenagers who divorced within a year of his birth, and records show a fractured adolescence. By 1985 he was in a group home in Oxnard and attending Channel Islands High School. By 1986, however, Reardon was enrolled at Hughson High, near Modesto, and using the last name Gilbreth, taken from his mother's ex-boyfriend, investigators say.

The break in the case, which NBC Los Angeles notes was labeled by authorities as "Camarillo Teen 1993," came after the Ventura County Medical Examiner sent a DNA sample last year to the private lab Othram, which linked the remains to Reardon's relatives, per SFGate. How Reardon died, how he ended up in Camarillo, and whether he was ever formally reported missing remain unclear. In a release, the sheriff's office says "critical details" of Reardon's life and final movements are still unknown and is asking anyone who knew him "even in passing" to contact its cold-case unit at 805-383-8739 or to email them at coldcase@ventura.org. "Any detail, no matter how small, could be the key to bringing answers and closure to this case," the sheriff's office notes.