Man found dead in Arizona in 1976 finally identified using fingerprint data
A man found dead by hikers in Arizona 47 years ago has been identified after authorities accessed national fingerprint records, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said.
The victim was identified Tuesday as Luis Alonso Paredes, a citizen of El Salvador.
On Nov. 23, 1976, hikers in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area found remains in a shallow grave of a man shot in the head at close range, the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post. The body was found about six miles east of Katherine Landing.
At the time, authorities could only determine he was a male in his 30s, over 5 feet tall and weighing 140-150 pounds, the sheriff’s office explained. Fingerprints taken from the body did not turn up an identity at the time, and without any other leads, the case went dormant.
In the time since, local law enforcement has gained access to national records, and the sheriff’s office restarted the investigation in October by using those records, ultimately finding a match for Paredes.
Investigators found that Paredes may have been living in the Las Vegas area at the time of his death, and also found that he had possibly worked for the Navy and Coast Guard in the San Francisco area.
The sheriff’s office has been unable to contact any relatives of Paredes, and asks that anyone with information on him, his family or the case contact the department at 928/753-0753, extension 4288, and that they should reference “DR# 76-5053.”
