This photo of Captain Yager appeared in the Palmyra Spectator newspaper Dec. 20, 1944. Credit: Ramapo College IGG Center
U.S. Marine Corps Captain Everett Leland Yager died in a military training exercise in July 1951. All of his remains were recovered in the Riverside County, California area and buried in Palmyra, Missouri—or at least thought to have been.
Fast forward years later to a child who wanted to build a rock collection. He began collecting during a scavenging exploration, presumably in Arizona. But the child did not find just rocks—he also found a human jaw bone. For the time being, the bone belonged to "Rock Collection John Doe."
That was until January 2023 when the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office (YCSO) and Yavapai County Medical Examiner (Arizona) referred the case to the Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center in New Jersey.
In May, the North Texas Center for Human Identification sent the extract from Rock Collection John Doe to Intermountain Forensics, where whole genome sequencing and bioinformatics were performed. A profile was developed and uploaded to GEDmatch Pro and FamilyTreeDNA.
In July, students in the Ramapo College IGG Bootcamp worked on the case. It took them, along with IGG Center intern Ethan Schwartz, less than 2 days to produce a candidate lead, which was then handed over to YCSO. The following month, a DNA sample was taken from the daughter of Yager to directly compare to the jaw bone profile.
In March 2024 that the DNA sample from Yager’s daughter confirmed a parent/child relationship, resolving the case and confirming that Rock Collection John Doe was indeed Capt. Everett Leland Yager.
No one is quite sure how the jaw bone ended up in Arizona since the accident took place in the air over California. One theory is that a scavenger, such as a bird, picked it up and eventually deposited it during its travels over Arizona. Plans are being made to reunite the remains with the family.
This is the first case resolution performed by the IGG’s summer bootcamp student cohort. The IGG Center's intern, New York resident and Suffern High School student Ethan Schwartz, is reportedly the youngest person to ever contribute to an investigative genetic genealogy case resolution.
“This case was a lesson in expecting the unexpected, and a testament to the power of IGG education at Ramapo College of New Jersey,” said Cairenn Binder, assistant director of the Ramapo College IGG Center. “The team that worked on this case at our IGG bootcamp included some truly outstanding researchers, and we are so proud of them for helping to repatriate Captain Yager’s remains and return them to his family.”
Republished courtesy of Ramapo College of New Jersey IGG Center.