Santa Cruz County Coroners Unit relying on more technology to solve cold cases
The Santa Cruz County Coroners Unit is working to identify remains found in the county over the past 50 years. The Department said matching remains to a missing person is never an easy task. KION took a behind the scenes look at how the department is relying on more technology to help solve cases decades old.
The Santa Cruz Coroners team exhumed a jawbone nearly 50 years old, an effort to retrieve DNA to try and find out who the bones belonged to.
“They’re from a time before the technology that we have, so a lot of it is us catching up with technology on these cases now we’re doing 3D CT scans of skulls to be able to do digital reconstruction of faces to try and get that out there to try and get people to provide DNA on cases that they may recognize that reconstruction as one of their loved ones,” said Sgt. Nick Baldrige with the Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Department.
If you’ve lost a loved one, you can search images on the coroners Pinterest page. Just this past year the Coroners Unit has solved 4 missing persons cases, including one on Thursday. The Department solved 24 unsolved cold cases, some date back to the 1950’s. Authorities said each case has it’s own mystery but they share the same goal for each, bringing closure to the families. Months ago the Tran family received an unexpected call that their loved one Ken Tran’s remains had indeed been found years after being washed out to sea back in 2002.
“The closure for my family, especially for my mom. She is able to put this issue at rest and not just still hoping that one day he’ll come knocking at the door and come home to her,” said brother of cold case victim, Max Tran.
The Coroners Unit said most of their matches are 100 percent based on DNA. Sgt. Baldrige said if a family doesn’t come forward with a sample the odds of identifying remains are slim.
“Getting them in here to submit DNA now, so that we can get that match is crucial to us being able to close more cases,” said Sgt. Baldrige.
Sgt. Baldrige said closing a case is important, but the whole point of their job is to bring peace and closure to more families.
