Cold Case Task Force helps identify missing Monterey County fisherman from 1990s

A joint-agency effort including the Monterey County District Attorney s Office Cold Situation Task Force the Sheriff s Office Coroner Division and a genealogy lab called Othram helped identify the remains of a man who was lost at sea in The remains were identified as Jeffrey Lyndon Hulliger born May Hulliger was years old when he disappeared at sea alongside his friend and boatmate Greg Mitchell during a fishing trip off the coast of Moss Landing on January Related Articles Kristin Smart murder strategies the trial went wrong according to Paul Flores appeal -year-old California man wrongfully convicted of murdering wife awarded million Bay Area police identify three persons in cold situation rape analysis Oakland investigators seeking help in years-old homicides Oakland police ID victim arrest suspect in May homicide In October a commercial fishing vessel recovered partial skeletal remains ensnared in a net offshore The body was clothed in a one-piece fleece garment likely an under-layer for a dry-suit or emergency survival suit There was no identification just five keys and two coins The remains were transferred to the Monterey County Sheriff-Coroner s Division where the initial forensic analysis unveiled the deceased person was a male likely to years old between feet inches tall and - in height The matter was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System but no matches were detected With no identity and no leads the event went cold In the Cold Affair Task Force opted to try advanced DNA analysis and sent a sample to Othram a forensic genetic genealogy lab in Texas that has worked with the county before From there a viable DNA profile was created and used to develop investigative leads Investigators detected promising relatives conducted follow-up interviews and approved a familial match through reference DNA testing Hulliger and Mitchell had been aboard a vessel called The Salmon Patty when they radioed a distress call reporting they were taking on water near a research buoy about miles offshore The Coast Guard launched an extensive search and even determined debris from the vessel including a survival suit and life preserver but no bodies were ever recovered In the current era Mitchell remains missing According to news reports at the time the boat was equipped with two survival suits a life raft and a satellite beacon which never activated Hulliger s body had been in Monterey Bay for years before being discovered earning him the nickname The Ancient Mariner a nod to the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem about a lone sailor s long and harrowing journey at sea