A California man looking for gold found death instead. Decades later, he finally has a name

In September 1982 in rural Mohave County, Ariz. — not far from Nevada’s southern tip — locals stumbled across human remains in the dry desert.

Along with the decomposing body, officials found one argyle sock, a rusty can opener, remnants of jeans, a leather belt and a short-sleeve shirt, and a handful of toiletries: a hair comb, nail clippers and a toothbrush.

But at the time, officials were unable to identify the man or determine cause of death, only estimating he was likely older than 55 and had been dead for at least a year, according to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office.

Any details of the death remained shrouded in mystery until this year when advanced DNA technology led to the first breakthrough in the case in decades. In February, Mohave County Sheriff’s investigators sent a sample from the remains to Othram Inc., a genetic laboratory in Texas specializing in cold cases. Using genome sequencing and forensic genetic genealogy, the company was able to identify the body as that of Virgil R. Renner of Humboldt County, born in 1910, officials announced this week.

Deputies said DNA identification was made through distant relatives, as Renner never had children and his brother and sister were long dead. But officials believe that Renner left California in the early 1970s in search of gold in Nevada. It remains unclear how he ended up dead in Arizona.

“The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank Othram Inc. once again for their assistance in this investigation,” the agency wrote in a statement. “If not for their help, Renner would have remained another John Doe found in the vast desert of Mohave County.”