Bone in child's rock collection identified as military captain killed in 1951 training exercise

Ashley Loose is a Real-Time Editor at ABC15 Arizona.

More than 60 years ago, U.S. Marine Corps Captain Everett Leland Yager was killed in a military exercise over California.

All of his remains were recovered in Riverside County and he was buried in Missouri — or at least that’s what was originally thought. Last year, a piece of bone found in a child’s rock collection was sent for testing. The piece was believed to be picked up in Arizona as the child explored and expanded the collection.

Genetic testing and a close familial match revealed that the piece of bone was a jaw bone belonging to Capt. Yager.Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center says no one knows how the remains got to Arizona in the first place, especially since the deadly incident happened in 1951 in another state.

“One theory is that a scavenger, such as a bird, picked it up and eventually deposited it during its travels over Arizona,” experts said in a press release.

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