By Clarence Cromwell
Dental records show the bones discovered Dec. 6 off a remote section of Highway 9 belonged to a San Jose man thought murdered by his roommate more than five years ago, police said.
The coroner's office matched the bones to dental records Jan. 9.
Oliver "Buddy" McDade's mother called police June 30, 1990, four days after the 30-year-old hotel clerk disappeared. Physical evidence in McDade's Leigh Avenue apartment pointed to murder, and the man he shared the room with, John David Perkins, couldn't be found.
"He's still wanted for murder," San Jose Police officer Steve Gracie said of Perkins.
But police may have discovered him already.
Another skeleton found last year near the Russian River in Sonoma County was within a half mile of the place McDade's compact car turned up a month after his disappearance.
The bones matched Perkins' build and had been buried about as long as he was missing, said Gracie, a member of San Jose's homicide crime scene unit. But authorities cannot yet confirm that the bones found in Sonoma are those of Perkins, partly because police are still seeking Perkins' dental charts to compare with the skeleton.
Investigators haven't ruled out the possibility that Perkins is alive and hiding. Gracie said a warrant for his arrest is still listed in police computer banks.
The murder was featured on the television crime show America's Most Wanted in 1993 in an attempt to locate Perkins. Gracie said he wants the show to run the segment again. Meanwhile, anyone with information on the case--especially doctors or dentists with any of Perkins' records--should call Gracie at 277-5283.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, Wednesday, January 24, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.