A bone that washed ashore at Centerville Beach in March has been matched by DNA to Jonathan Raxa, a 37-year-old commercial fisherman who vanished on Dec. 14, 1999, after his boat was struck by a large wave at the entrance to Humboldt Bay. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office announced the identification on Sept. 16, bringing an end to a disappearance that had gone unresolved for nearly three decades.
Raxa was one of four men aboard the commercial fishing vessel Silver Spray when it was hit at the entrance to Humboldt Bay, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office. The captain and two other crew members were thrown into the water and later recovered, but Raxa could not be located, the sheriff's office said. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Raxa was a father of three whose boat accident happened during a December fishing trip, a time of year when crab season traditionally opens along the coast.
Investigators eventually located Raxa's son and obtained a family DNA sample, which was submitted to the California Department of Justice for entry into the national CODIS database, the sheriff's office said. That sample was later matched to the bone.
A Bone on the Sand Reopens the Case
In March, Humboldt County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to Centerville Beach after a report of a possible human bone. Deputies identified it as a human sacrum and turned it over to the Humboldt County Coroner's Office, which submitted it to the California Department of Justice for DNA analysis, per the sheriff's office's account. The profile from the bone matched the family DNA associated with Jonathan Raxa, and his family was contacted and notified of the identification, the agency said.
The announcement came nearly 30 years after Raxa disappeared, according to the same account, and it closed a case that had lingered without answers since the night the Silver Spray was overtaken by the sea. The sheriff's office said the outcome underscores how preserved family DNA samples can provide critical investigative leads and help identify missing people, even decades after they vanish. The case was also detailed by the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association, which confirmed the September announcement of the identification.
A Notoriously Dangerous Stretch of Water
Humboldt Bay is the second-largest bay in California, and its entrance is known for breakers that have swept people out to sea and destroyed ships over the years, according to the Los Angeles Times. Commercial fishing carries a fatality rate more than 28 times higher than the national average between 2000 and 2017, per the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, with vessel disasters and falls overboard among the leading hazards, the Times reported.
Survivor accounts from the night of the wreck, cited by the Times, describe the violence of the wave that hit the Silver Spray. Crew member Al Burns described somersaulting underwater as the 35-foot ship sank and said he had a good feeling he was going to die. Those details, paired with the eventual DNA match, illustrate how long such cases can remain open even as families wait for word.
Closure After Nearly Three Decades
For Raxa's family, the identification brought closure after investigative work finally resolved what happened to him, according to the sheriff's office. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office said the case exemplifies the importance of preserving family DNA samples in missing-person investigations, since such samples can help resolve cases even decades after a person's disappearance. Raxa's body was never found after the 1999 accident, but the bone recovered at Centerville Beach ultimately gave his family the answer they had waited decades to receive.
