The Humboldt County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office has identified human remains found on the South Jetty more than a year ago.

Hernandez. From the California Attorney General missing persons website.

The Sheriff’s Office’s Samantha Kargas tells the Outpost that the long delay in identifying the remains was due to a number of factors. Initially, she says, there were no outward indicators that connected the remains to a missing persons case that was filed a few weeks previous. But eventually Sheriff’s Office personnel linked the two cases and acquired a DNA sample of the missing man and, after the normal (long) delay associated with processing DNA samples, the identification was made.

From the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

The Humboldt County Coroner’s Office has identified the body of a man discovered on the South Jetty beach on Jan. 6, 2017.

The body has been identified as missing person Mitchell G. Hernandez. Hernandez was reported missing to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 23, 2016. He was last seen in the Alderpoint area on Nov. 20, 2016.

Hernandez was 47 years old at the time he went missing. Hernandez’s cause of death was determined to be consistent with drowning.