DNA used to ID body found in Sac storm drain

Authorities used DNA samples to identify the skeletal remains of a missing man who was found early last month by a county crew cleaning out a storm drain in south Sacramento.

The remains of Jack Larson, 60, were found in the storm drain along the 5300 block of Gordon Drive near Stockton Boulevard, according to the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office, which listed Larson’s initial classification of his death as “undetermined.”

Employees from the Sacramento County Department of Water Resources were clearing the storm drain on Dec. 8, when they found a shoe while unclogging their vacuum machine. The workers thought it was “a stick out of the muck that clogged the machine, “according to a county news release.

The stick turned out to be a human leg bone and a foot, officials said. The water resources crew stopped and notified the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office. Water Resources Director Michael Peterson said his department partners with law enforcement agencies throughout the year as crews clean up drainage culverts and water pipes that run through homeless encampments.

“So when our crews came across human remains, while shaken up by their discovery, they kept their cool and knew to call the Sheriff’s Office for assistance,” Peterson said in the news release.

Sheriff’s detectives arrived at the scene and found what appeared to be another bone in the storm drain.

After seeing news reports of the skeletal remains found, Larson’s family called the Coroner’s Office. Officials said Larson’s brother and daughter provided DNA samples to the Coroner’s Office, which matched them to DNA samples from the skeletal remains.

The Coroner’s Office has 73 active cases in which people who have died have not been identified. Officials said the Coroner’s Office needs help to identify them.

Authorities ask anyone who recognizes the description of any of these unidentified deceased persons in Sacramento County to call the Coroner’s Office at 916-874-9320.