LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A 15-year-old mystery has finally been solved.
On Nov. 11, 2009, workers contracted to pour cement on Highway 93 took a break at Milepost 3 near the Hoover Dam.
While standing on the west side of the highway, a worker spotted a human bone. The workers looked around the area, found additional bones, and notified their supervisor who notified National Park Service agents. The Mohave County Sheriff's Office was also notified.
Investigators eventually found more bones, a sun-bleached pair of blue jeans, a damaged white towel, a sun-bleached red t-shirt, a black athletic shoe, and a green sleeping bag.
Over the years, the sheriff's office says they weren't able to develop any leads as to who the person was.
On Feb. 2, 2022, a detective obtained a bone sample of the victim from the Medical Examiner's Office and submitted it to the Arizona DPS lab requesting a DNA profile that could be submitted into the CODIS database to try to identify the unknown person. A sample was also sent to the University of North Texas, where an extracted DNA sample was obtained and stored for analysis.
Once again, investigators did not find any new leads.
Fast forward to April 2024. Othram, a genetic lab in Texas, told investigators they had received grant funding to pay for forensic genetic genealogy in this case. The sample that was stored at UNT was sent to Othram so a genetic genealogist could develop a profile.
In October 2024, investigators received a report from the genealogist who stated the victim was a descendant of ancestors born in the mid-1800s and lived in Michigan. Investigators began looking into possible relatives of the victim and spoke with a pair of siblings who said their brother, William Herman Hietamaki, had not been seen by them since 1995 and had been traveling throughout the southwest.
After additional testing with the relatives, investigators were able to confirm that the remains were Hietamaki.
According to deputies, he was born on April 4, 1950, and grew up in the Trout Creek, Michigan area. After graduating high school, he began traveling, was known to hitchhike, and lived a nomadic lifestyle. He was last seen by his family when he visited his sister in New Mexico in 1995.
Public records also show that he once lived in Las Vegas.
The Medical Examiner's Office was unable to determine his cause of death due to the condition of his remains. However, they estimated that he died between 2006 and 2008.
