Fri, 6 Nov, 2026, 04:39 am
Reported by NBC 7 San Diego
Authorities reached out to the public Thursday for help in identifying five young people whose names and life stories have remained shrouded in mystery for decades following their deaths in the San Diego area.
In hopes of finally getting answers about the long-unsolved cases, the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office has collaborated with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, Rady Children's Hospital and a forensic artist who has created renderings of how the decedents might have looked around the time of their demises.
The shortest-running of the death investigations centers on a dark- haired teen or young man whose body was found in Sweetwater Reservoir in Spring Valley on Jan. 2, 1999. Investigators estimate that his remains had been in the water for one to two days, according to the medical examiner. He was possibly Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, 5 feet, 6 inches tall and about 165 pounds, and likely 17 to 22 years old when he died.
On his left shoulder, he had a large tattoo depicting a banner emblazoned the word "wicca" along with a bird in flight shaped like the letter "V," an ankh symbol and a pentagram, and he wore a gold-colored hoop earring in his left ear, the county office reported.
