Federal Funding Helps ID Charles Marrs, Missing in Trinity River Since 1993

When Charles Marrs fell into the Trinity River near the Big Rock River Access area in Willow Creek in May 1993, searchers scoured the water by boat, combed the roadways on foot, and called in a Coast Guard helicopter. The 63-year-old's body was never recovered. A California Highway Patrol officer last observed Marrs floating past the north end of Clover Flat, and then he was gone.

Two years later, in 1995, a skeletonized human arm and hand surfaced near the north end of the Hoopa Airstrip, not far from where Marrs had disappeared. Investigators obtained a DNA sample and entered it into both the California Missing Persons DNA Database and CODIS, the FBI's Combined DNA Index System. For more than two decades, the profile returned no match.

That changed because of a federal grant. Community Project Funding secured in 2024 by U.S. Representative Jared Huffman gave the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office resources to attack a backlog of unidentified remains cases by partnering with Othram Inc., a forensic genealogy laboratory in The Woodlands, Texas. HCSO and the California Department of Justice sent a DNA extract from the 1995 remains to Othram, whose scientists used forensic genome sequencing to build a comprehensive DNA profile, then applied genetic genealogy to trace living relatives.

In July 2025, Othram reported a likely match: Charles Marrs. The profile pointed to several genetic relatives, including a nephew. HCSO Investigator Mike Fridley tracked down the nephew, who confirmed that his uncle had indeed drowned in the Trinity River decades earlier. The nephew submitted his own DNA for comparison. In March 2026, the California DOJ made it official: the skeletal remains were those of Charles Marrs, closing a case that had been open for more than 30 years.

The same announcement resolved a second cold case. A partial skull found off Fickle Hill Road in Arcata in August 1996, catalogued for years as "Arcata John Doe 1996," was identified as Gregory Hugh Oliver, a White male, 6'2" and 165 pounds, who had been reported missing to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office in Florida and was last seen by family in 1983. Othram flagged a potential match in December 2025, and investigators located a DNA sample from Oliver's mother. The California DOJ confirmed the identification in March 2026, resolving a case that had gone unsolved for nearly three decades.

CSLEA President Alan Barcelona credited the convergence of two technologies for the breakthroughs. "It's hard not to be in awe of the DNA work that is done at the California Department of Justice, and now combined with the assistance of forensic genetic genealogy, cases that are decades old are being solved," Barcelona said, adding that identifications in potential homicide cases can also generate fresh investigative leads for detectives.

Forensic genetic genealogy, which cross-references DNA profiles against publicly accessible genealogy databases to infer kinship, had resolved 651 criminal cases nationally and identified 464 decedents as of December 2023. The Huffman-funded Othram partnership had already produced one prior Humboldt identification, that of Kay Medin, whose skull was found on a Northern California beach more than 32 years after her disappearance. HCSO said it is continuing to work with Othram on additional unidentified remains cases in the county.

Investigator Mike Fridley, who led both investigations, can be reached at (707) 441-3024.