DNA identifies McKinleyville man found in Eel River after five years
A bone found by a fisherman near the Dos Rios Bridge matched John Davis III, ending nearly five years of uncertainty for the McKinleyville family.
DNA testing identified a human bone found in the Eel River as belonging to John Davis III, the McKinleyville man who vanished after a hunting trip in October 2021.
Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office records list Davis as missing as of Oct. 25, 2021, after he did not return from a hunting trip near mile marker 8 on Highway 162. Deputies said Davis and his son left their McKinleyville home early on Oct. 23, hiked about 3 miles from their vehicle and set up camp along the Eel River. A storm moved in overnight, flooded the campsite and separated the two.
Davis’s son walked back toward the vehicle after the water rose, then returned to find neither his father nor the tent. Family members began searching and contacted law enforcement. By the time deputies reached the area, river levels were too high for a thorough bank search. State missing-person records list Davis’s last contact date as Oct. 24, 2021, his age as 48 and his clothing as a camouflage rain jacket and neon green pants with a reflective stripe.
Search and rescue crews kept working the case for months. Volunteers used ATVs, a drone, mutual-aid resources, California Highway Patrol aircraft and help from the National Guard, but they were unable to find Davis. Those efforts were suspended in July 2022 pending new leads.
On Feb. 1, 2026, a fisherman reported finding a long bone about 2 miles north of the Dos Rios Bridge. Detectives sent it to the Chico State University Human Identification Laboratory, which determined the bone was human. The California Department of Justice Missing Persons DNA Program then confirmed a positive familial DNA match to Davis’s mother and father.
More than 70 search-and-rescue volunteers from multiple counties returned to the river corridor on July 11, 2026, searching from Davis’s last known location to the area where the bone was recovered. Several additional bones were collected during that effort, but investigators later determined they were nonhuman and sent them to Chico State for further analysis.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
