Remains of banker missing since 1999 found on California beach by family looking for seashells

Partial remains found on a California beach four years ago have now been identified as a former banker who vanished in 1999.

Partial remains found on a California beach four years ago have now been identified as a former banker who vanished in 1999.

A family was looking for seashells on the Salmon Creek Beach in Sonoma County in June 2022 when they came across a long bone that contained surgical hardware, the DNA Doe Project said in a news release.

The agency and its partners worked for years on the case and identified the remains as those of Walter Karl Kinney, 59, a former banker who lived nearby in Santa Rosa.

“Thank you to the DNA Doe Project for helping us put a name to the human remains found at Salmon Creek Beach,” the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post last week. “We value this partnership as we continue working together to identify remains found in Sonoma County.”

Walter Karl Kinney.via DNA Doe ProjectThe DNA Doe Project said that after the bone was found, a DNA profile was developed for the then-unidentified man. In January, the profile was uploaded to the GEDmatch database, a DNA site built for genetic genealogy research.