Remains found in shallow grave by tree trimmers in 1988 identified, California cops say
Skeletal remains found buried in a shallow grave nearly four decades ago have been identified as part of a homicide investigation, California deputies say.
Using DNA testing the remains were identified as Paul Richard Davis, of Kern County, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office said in a Feb. 28 news release.
As a crew was removing trees in remote Quincy on April 21, 1988, they noticed what looked “to be a bone sticking out of the ground,” deputies said.
A worker dug up the bone and found there were clothes with it, deputies said.
The worker called the sheriff’s deputies, who then excavated the area and found additional human skeletal remains in a shallow grave.
Deputies said they sent evidence, which included three root samples, to the University of Arizona for testing.
Based on root analysis, investigators determined “the earliest time the grave could have been dug was during the growing season of 1985 and the latest was the growing season of 1986,” according to the release.
Skeletal remains were sent to the California State University, Chico, where anthropologists determined the remains belonged to a man who stood about 6 feet tall, had a muscular build and was between the ages of 35 to 45, deputies said.
They also found there was a hole in the back of the man’s skull, suggesting he had been shot, per the release.
Evidence was also sent to the California Department of Justice in hopes of identifying them with dental records, according to deputies. However, investigators’ attempts were unsuccessful.
Eventually, all the remains were sent to Chico State University, where they sat unidentified for decades.
Then, in 2022, the university’s anthropologists contacted deputies, saying they were “re-examining old cases” and wanted to reassess the remains found in 1988, the sheriff’s office said.
Anthropologists also entered the man’s DNA profile into the Combined DNA Index System, a technology that was “in its very early stages of development and not commonplace in the 80s,” deputies said.
But no matches were found in CODIS, deputies said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Sacramento office reached out to deputies in 2023 and suggested a new approach to try to identify the remains: investigative genetic genealogy.
Genetic genealogy uses DNA testing coupled with “traditional genealogical methods” to create “family history profiles,” according to the Library of Congress. With genealogical DNA testing, researchers can determine if and how people are biologically related.
After partnering with a private DNA company, the sheriff’s office sent bone samples for testing, deputies said.
The company, Othram Inc., said its scientists created “a comprehensive DNA profile,” which detectives used in a follow-up investigation, the company said in a news release.
This led deputies to believe the remains may belong to Davis.
FBI and sheriff’s detectives went to the Bakersfield area, where Davis had living relatives, deputies said.
The relatives provided DNA samples for testing, which were compared with the DNA profile for the remains, confirming they likely belonged to Davis, according to deputies.
By speaking with Davis’ family, deputies said they learned he had “lived a transient lifestyle.”
He called his family once every six months, “until one day in the early 1980s, the calls just stopped,” deputies said.
Davis’ family told deputies they were unsure of why he may have been in Plumas County, as he did not have any family or friends in the area, deputies said.
The last point of contact investigators could find for Davis was Jan. 11, 1983, when he was released from jail custody in Santa Rosa after a petty theft arrest, deputies said.
With “very little information” about Davis’, deputies said they are looking to speak to anyone who may have known him to help bring closure to his case.
Anyone with information is asked to contact deputies at 530-283-6363.
Quincy is about a 140-mile drive northeast from Sacramento.
This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 12:05 PM with the headline "Remains found in shallow grave by tree trimmers in 1988 identified, California cops say."
