Jawbone of U.S. Marine Identified in Arizona Boy's Rock Collection After 70 Years

Genealogy students at Ramapo College confirmed the jawbone, initially mistaken for a rock, belongs to Capt. Everett Leland Yager, a Marine who died in 1951.

In 2002, a child's rock collection in Arizona was found to contain a human jawbone, later identified as belonging to U.S. Marine Capt. Everett Leland Yager.
Yager died during a military training exercise in California in 1951, but his remains were thought to have been fully recovered and buried in Missouri.
The case remained unsolved until Ramapo College's Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center took it over, using advanced DNA techniques to identify the remains.
A high school intern and college students at Ramapo College played a crucial role in solving this decades-old mystery within just two days.
The origin of how the jawbone ended up in Arizona remains unclear, with theories suggesting it could have been transported by a scavenger bird.