The San Benito County Sheriff’s Office has identified skeletal
remains of a Canadian man who had lost contact with his family four
years before authorities discovered the bones in March. The man,
identified as Robert G. Stewart from Calgary in Alberta, Canada,
was reported missing in March 2009. His last contact with family
members came three years earlier in 2006, when he was age 29.
The San Benito County Sheriff’s Office has identified skeletal remains of a Canadian man who had lost contact with his family four years before authorities discovered the bones in March.
The man, identified as Robert G. Stewart from Calgary in Alberta, Canada, was reported missing in March 2009. His last contact with family members came three years earlier in 2006, when he was age 29.
The sheriff’s office declined to confirm whether there are suspicions of foul play.
The remains were found by two tourists from Northern California on March 24 – nearly a year to the day after being reported missing – near Airline Highway on private property 38 miles south of Hollister. The tourists found nearly 50 bones, including a femur, a jawbone with several teeth still attached and some animal fragments.
The tourists, who were in the area on a camping trip, found the bones after they had stopped on a roadside to eat lunch and take photos, authorities said.
With the help of an archeologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the sheriff’s office confirmed some bones were human, sheriff’s Sgt. Tony Lamonica said. The bones still are in Santa Cruz to potentially determine a cause of death.
Investigators also found a backpack near the remains with a student loan document from the University of Calgary with Stewart’s name on it and a faded receipt from Marshalls clothing store dated August 2006, Detective Ed Nino said.
Using the information, the sheriff’s office got in contact with the Calgary authorities to search for any missing person’s report. Calgary police confirmed Stewart was identified as missing and helped the sheriff’s office get in contact with the family.
Stewart’s family ran a credit-card search and discovered his last purchase was a round-trip ticket to San Francisco in August 2006, Nino said. The family – from Vancouver in British Columbia – asked the airline and discovered the return ticket was never used.
The sheriff’s office, after reaching the family and using dental records received from a Calgary dentist, identified the remains with help from a Monterey County odontologist, Lamonica said. An odontologist handles dental evidence.
Neither authorities nor family members knew why Stewart had been in San Benito County, Lamonica said.
The sheriff’s office is still examining the area for remains, sending search-and-rescue teams daily, the sergeant said. Authorities would not say the specific location where the remains were found to prevent having people going in the area.
Investigators are asking for anyone with more information to call the sheriff’s office at (831) 636-4080.
Look back for more details on this story as they become available.
