The Kern County Sheriff’s Office, California, on Monday, March 2nd, revealed the identity of the person whom the bones found on Highway 166, Maricopa, belonged to. The bones belong to a missing 29-year-old male, Zacharey Tayler Wilks, of Lompoc.

Wilks was last seen on May 24th, 2017, when he left Lompoc for a trip to Las Vegas, and never came back. The police confirmed Wilks’ identity on February 13th after running a DNA test but chose to delay the announcement to give the deceased’s family time to digest the news.

The bones of the young man were found in November 2019, east of Soda Lake Road, on the highway. According to the police report, a search and rescue team was deployed in the area after the California Highway Patrol found a wrecked vehicle off the roadway.

The accident did not look recent, and there was nobody in the car. The search and rescue team canvassed the area for a few days before coming across two bones.

A preliminary examination showed that one of the bones was human, and the other belonged to an animal. There was no DNA to compare the human bone with, but the car registration pointed the police to Wilks.

Armed with that information, the sheriff office sent the bone to the Department of Justice for testing, and also contacted Wilks’ family. The latter submitted their DNA for comparison, and eventually, there was a match.

The cause and manner of death of the deceased remain unknown at this time, and the police have not stated if they would keep investigating.

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