Remains Found Monday at the Arcata Marsh Are Human, Confirmed Arcata Police This Morning

Humboldt County Deputy Coroners as they prepare to carry out the remains from the Arcata Marsh on Monday. [Photos and video by Mark McKenna]

Dokweiler pointed out this morning in a phone call that the basic  facts about the death and the person who died are still being determined. He did say that the death had probably occurred with the last year, but not much else is known beyond that.

“The Coroner is going to do an examination to try to determine gender, age, things like that,” he explained. “Trying to determine do we have a homicide investigation or what, you just don’t know until you go through those steps.”

At this point, he said, it seemed likely that the remains had been moved by tidal fluctuations. He explained that the Arcata Marsh is frequented by birdwatchers and others who tend to be observant and also to walk off the trail. “Those areas [where the remains were found] are pretty heavily traveled,” he told us. “The idea that they weren’t discovered sooner tends to support that they moved about with the tides.”

He added, “It is hard to tell where the remains entered the water…There is a lot of tidal movements in that area. The remains could potentially [been deposited] some distance away from where they ended up…especially over an extended  period of time.”

The first report from the scene Monday morning indicated that the body may have been wrapped in bags which would support the idea that a homicide had occurred. However, Dokweiler said that at this point they aren’t sure if the remains became entangled in plastic bags as they were carried by water.  “It is really going to take some examination to know what the connection [of the plastic] is to the remains,” he explained.

All the examination has to be done with the utmost care in order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and that takes time.

He reminded readers that Humboldt County doesn’t have a pathologist on staff and has to arrange for one to look at deaths that require one.

Dokweiler noted that just to make identification in this kind of case “so much is determined by the condition of the remains.” He pointed out that because DNA is often the most accurate method of determining identity when the body has deteriorated and that there is a backlog of similar cases across the country to identify, there is “no short cut on that. It just takes time.”

He went on to say that it’s usually months before questions about deaths like these “are definitively answered by the Coroner’s Office.”

Earlier: Coroner and Law Enforcement Investigating Possible Human Remains Located in Arcata Marsh