News

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is asking the public for help identifying a dead man found on a rural and secluded part of the Hoopa Valley reservation.

The Hoopa Valley Tribal Police Department got a call at about 10 p.m. on March 22 from someone reporting they’d found human remains in a wooded area off Bair Road. Sheriff’s detectives recovered the remains the following day and launched an investigation.

Sheriff’s Lt. Kevin Miller said the department isn’t releasing how the still-unidentified man is believed to have died, or how long his remains may have been in the woods, for fear of compromising the ongoing investigation. “We don’t want to muddy waters by releasing too much information at this point,” he said.

But the office issued a press release this morning saying the man is believed to have been between 18 and 30 years old, and was wearing black and red Air Jordan shoes (size 12), Carhartt pants, black sweatpants with a Hoopa Warriors logo on them, a black “Cal” baseball hat and a California Republic T-shirt. Detectives also found a red, white and black beaded necklace on the dead man and foreign coins in his pants pocket.

The death is being considered suspicious, and anyone with information is asked to call sheriff’s investigator Greg Musson at 268-3643.


The full press releases are copied below:

On March 28th an autopsy was performed on the remains of a person located off Bair Road in Hoopa. The autopsy revealed the remains were that of a male approximately 18-30 years’ old wearing size 12 black and red Air Jordan shoes, 36x34 size brown Carhardt painter’s style pants, 3X size black sweatpants with a “Hoopa Warriors” logo, a black “Cal” baseball cap and a black t-shirt with “California Republic” logo printed in red and white. Also found was a red, white and black beaded necklace and in the pockets of his clothing foreign coins were found.

Investigators consider the death to be suspicious in nature. This is an on-going investigation and because of that the cause of death is not being released at this time. The Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in identifying the person and hopes the above information will be helpful.

Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to call Sheriff’s Investigator Greg Musson at 707-268-3643.



On Sunday, 03-22-2015 at about 10:10 p.m. a citizen contacted the Hoopa Valley Tribal Police Department, regarding human remains he had discovered in a wooded area off Bair Road which is off Pine Creek Road, Hoopa. The Hoopa Valley Tribal Police Department then contacted the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, who responded to the scene along with a Hoopa Valley Tribal Police Officer.

A Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Deputy secured the scene for the night, because of the late evening hours. On 03-23-2015 in the morning a detective with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and a Deputy Coroner responded to the scene to start their investigation. At this time it is unknown on the exact cause of death or the gender of the human remains. Officers are currently still on scene conducting an investigation.

An autopsy will be scheduled in the next few days to determine cause of death and the gender of the human remains.

Anyone with information for the Sheriff’s Office regarding this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Sheriff’s Office at 707-445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at 707-268-2539.