By Clarence Cromwell
Bones of an unidentified man, discovered Dec. 6 by a motorist along Highway 9, didn't yield clues about who the man was or how he died, said Sgt. Jim Arata of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department.
After stopping for a rest break around 5 p.m, a driver spotted the bones wrapped in a sheet of clear plastic about a mile north of where Highway 9 crosses Highway 35. The bones lay about four miles directly west of Saratoga Village, in a rural, unincorporated area.
An autopsy conducted two days after the discovery revealed only that the skeleton was an adult male at least 25 years old. Officials still do not know when the man died.
Arata said the sheriff's department will send a dental impression from the skeleton to the California Department of Justice in an attempt to identify the corpse. Other Bay Area police departments will be asked to send leads about missing males to the Department of Justice.
The process could take a few months, Arata said. If the justice department can't help, the sheriff's department may have to hire a forensic anthropologist to help identify the bones. Some experts can sketch the deceased person based on skeletal features, he said.
Anyone with information about the skeleton should call Sgt. Bob Linderman of the sheriff's department, 299-2211.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, Wednesday, January 10, 1996.
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