You Won’t Believe What This Arizona Child Found

Children are naturally curious. The first few years of life are met with an undying urge to find out everything there is to know, and most children take full advantage of their youth to learn more about the world around them.

It was one Arizona child whos curiosity got the better of them that unearthed a dark secret.

Finding Human Remains in an Innocent Collection

Even in my mid-20s, when I find a cool looking rock on the street I have to fight every urge to not take it home and display it. This is much more normalized in the eyes of a wonderstruck child.

One Yavapai child had a rock collection of his own that he cherished with every bone in his body. He had no idea he was in possession of one more bone than a normal human. Among the collection, the child's parents found something disturbing: human remains.

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Reuniting Family Generations Apart

The parents were, understandably, shocked to find a human jaw bone in their son's rock collection, but more so curious on the identity of the human who's bone they now had possession of.

In January of 2023, the family brought the remains to the local sheriff's office to hopefully put the case to rest. In order to trace down the owner of the bone, Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center and the North Texas Center for Human Identification worked together to collect DNA samples.

Finally, in March of 2024, the culprit was found. The original owner of the bone was U.S. Marine Corps Captain Everett Leland Yeager, who passed away in 1951. By matching DNA with his daughter, the institutes were able to confirm a match, and plan return the lost property back to its family.

[NBC12]

[FOX News 10]