Skeletal remains of California man, 33, who died at sea in 1978 identified

(KTLA) - Partial skeletal remains discovered on a California beach in 1984 have been identified as a 33-year-old man who, along with another man, died at sea in 1978, officials announced.

In May 1984, deputies with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department were dispatched to Silver Strand Beach in Oxnard on reports of human skeletal remains, the department said in a news release.

The remains, which consisted of a jawbone with teeth, were determined by the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s office to belong to an adult male between the ages of 19 and 99.

It wasn’t until 2006 that a DNA profile on the jawbone was entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

“Despite this lengthy journey, the man could not be identified and became known as Ventura County John Doe (1984),” author