Jawbone found on beach in 1984 identified as man who vanished at sea, CA cops say
A human jawbone with teeth was found washed ashore on a California beach in 1984.
For decades, the remains discovered on the Oxnard beach posed a mystery, as investigators searched for the man’s identity, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said in a Nov. 6 news release.
Now, thanks to help from advances in DNA technology, the jawbone has been identified as belonging to Donald Scott Reich, who was born in 1944 and died at sea in 1978, deputies said.
“Every individual deserves to be identified and returned to their loved ones,” the sheriff’s office said.
Remains found on beach
After the remains were found on Silver Strand Beach in Oxnard, deputies said the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office responded and collected them.
Through an analysis, the medical examiner’s office determined “the jawbone belonged to an adult man, between the ages of 19 and 99 years old,” according to deputies.
For more than two decades , the case remained stagnant.
Then, in 2006, a DNA profile from the jawbone was created and entered into the Combined DNA Index System, the sheriff’s office said.
CODIS is “a computer software program that operates local, state, and national databases of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence, and missing persons,” according to federal prosecutors.
Deputies said no matches to missing persons were found in CODIS.
The man’s case was also entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, deputies said.
NAMUS, a “national repository for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed persons cases,” serves as a resource for “law enforcement, medical examiners, coroners, and investigating professionals,” according to the program’s website.
Genetic genealogy helps lead to ID
In 2025, the sheriff’s office partnered with Othram Inc. in hopes forensic genetic genealogy could help lead to the man’s identity, the company said in a news release.
Genetic genealogy uses DNA testing coupled with “traditional genealogical methods” to create “family history profiles,” according to the Library of Congress. With genealogical DNA testing, researchers can determine if and how people are biologically related.
After deputies sent evidence to Othram, the company said its scientists extracted DNA to build “a comprehensive DNA profile for the man.”
With new leads, deputies said additional investigation led them to the “case of a man who died at sea in 1978.”
The man’s relative gave investigators a DNA sample, which was compared with the unknown man’s, confirming his identity as Reich, deputies said.
“Being able to provide that answer allows people to move forward,” Kristen Mittelman, Othram’s chief development officer, said in an email to McClatchy News. “People should know that it doesn’t matter how old a case is, or whether it was hopeless in the past, there is technology that works, and it may be able to bring answers to a lot of these families.”
Man dies at sea
Reich, 33, was “a professional organist who had recently married and moved to Ventura County,” deputies said.
“He worked at the Wagon Wheel Junction complex in Oxnard, which was an entertainment complex that included a roller rink and restaurant,” the sheriff’s office said.
While he was working, he met a mechanic, 20-year-old Mike Gay, who offered to help him fix his 23-foot boat that needed repairing, deputies said.
“The two men were last seen at the harbor around 10 p.m. on a Sunday night,” deputies said, adding that they believe the men launched the boat to test its engine “and either ran out of gas or had an engine malfunction.”
After the pair was reported missing, deputies said they along with the U.S. Coast Guard searched for them by air and sea.
The boat’s wreckage was found scattered on Mandalay Beach the next day, “with pieces of the boat found over more than a mile of coastline,” the sheriff’s office said.
“Investigators believe the boat lost power, drifted and got caught in the surf and was ripped apart by the sea and shore,” deputies said.
Gay’s body was found four miles offshore, while “most of Reich’s remains were found about a month later,” deputies said.
Oxnard is about a 60-mile drive northwest from Los Angeles.
