Skull Found by Loggers Identified After More Than 30 Years

A 1994 Discovery Finally Gets a Name

Human remains found by loggers near a Sierra Nevada campsite in 1994 have been identified as George Krusely, a man who had last been known to be in California in 1963. The identification came after decades of DNA testing and investigative genetic genealogy.

The case began July 7, 1994, when loggers found a partial human skull near a campsite at Putt Lake in the Nyack area of Placer County. Detectives estimated the campsite may have been there for a long time, possibly more than a year.

Investigators collected the remains and other items and stored them as evidence. The available material was too limited to establish a cause of death, and the identity of the person remained unknown.

The DNA Problem Was More Complicated Than Usual

Modern testing eventually allowed the California Department of Justice and Othram to develop a DNA profile from the evidence. That profile was then used by the Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center to search for possible family connections.

The genealogy work was complicated by Krusely’s Croatian and Yugoslavian ancestry, according to CBS Sacramento. Those populations are less represented in some accessible genealogy databases, giving researchers fewer close matches to work with.

Even so, the team was able to identify a living descendant. Police in Ohio helped obtain a DNA sample from that relative, and authorities said the comparison confirmed that the remains belonged to Krusely.

Identification Does Not Establish a Crime

Krusely was born in 1929 and had last been known to be in California in 1963. Investigators have not publicly established how long he had been dead when the remains were found in 1994.

They also have not determined a cause of death. Nothing in the public record cited for this article establishes that Krusely was killed or that another person was responsible for his death.

That boundary matters because genetic genealogy can solve one type of mystery without solving every part of a case. Here, the breakthrough was identity.

A Family Connection Closed One Question

For more than 30 years, investigators had remains, a location and a small collection of evidence but no name. The DNA work reversed that order: researchers first built a genetic profile, then traced possible relatives, then confirmed the identity with a direct family comparison.

The result gives Placer County a name for a case that had been listed only by the circumstances of discovery. It also allows any remaining historical records about Krusely to be considered in the proper personal context.

The cause of his death remains unknown. But after more than three decades, the man whose remains were found near Putt Lake is no longer unidentified.

References: CBS Sacramento - Remains found near Placer County campsite identified | Ramapo College - New Jersey College Helps ID Human Remains in 1994 California Cold Case

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