A dude was strolling along this super rocky and totally beautiful shoreline of Trinidad Head, like about 25 miles north of Eureka, when he saw something super weird and kinda freaky. The unidentified guy found a partial human skull back in February 1993 and he was like, “Whoa, what the heck is this?!” So, he handed it over to the Fortuna Police Department to figure out what was going on. The police were all, “Hmm, this is strange,” and sent the skull to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department for help.
The Sheriff’s Department was like, “We need to figure out who this skull belongs to,” so they took a DNA sample and put it into some big databases like the California Missing Person DNA Database and the National Unidentified Person DNA index. Fast forward to this week, and the Sheriff’s Department was all, “Guess what, we finally figured it out!” They connected the skull to a 48-year-old woman from Trinity County who disappeared back in 1987.
Turns out, the skull fragments are believed to be the third set of remains belonging to Kay Josephine Medin, also known as Kay Adams, who was an elementary school teacher from Hyampom. She vanished from her rural Northern California community in 1987, and no one ever found out what happened to her. Her husband passed away in 2018, and there were no witnesses, suspects, or charges in the case. So yeah, it’s been a real mystery.
But hey, there’s some progress now, thanks to a third-party forensic tester and a federal grant. Law enforcement peeps are giving a shoutout to Rep. Jared Huffman for providing a grant to help clear out cold cases. They reached out to Othram, a Texas-based forensic lab that specializes in solving old cases using genome sequencing. The lab did its thing and created a DNA profile of the skull fragment.
In September, Othram sent over some new leads to the Sheriff’s Department, and they were like, “Oh snap, we might have a match!” They found possible genetic relatives, including a daughter, and confirmed that the skull belonged to Medin. Othram said this was the 63rd case in California that they helped solve. So yeah, they’re doing some pretty cool stuff.
Overall, it’s a tragic story, but at least the community can have some closure now. Rep. Huffman said, “Funding like this to help solve cold cases can not only bring justice, but closure to families and communities. I’m proud we were able to do some of that in this case.” So, there’s a silver lining in all of this sadness.
If you have any tips about Medin’s case, you can hit up investigator Mike Fridley at (707) 441-3024. Back in the summer of 1987, Medin disappeared while her husband was away on a business trip. The whole area was searched, and people were interviewed, but no one had any answers. Her purse and belongings were found at home, and the Sheriff’s Office listed her disappearance as suspicious.
Around 100 peeps, mostly volunteers, searched all over Trinity County, but they couldn’t find her. It was a real head-scratcher for the local sheriff, who just didn’t have any leads. In November 1987, they received a package of skeletal remains, but it was still an incomplete set. More remains were discovered in East Humboldt County, about 45 miles from Medin’s home, while the skull was found 100 miles away on the shore of Trinidad Head.
So, it looks like they finally cracked the case, thanks to some modern technology and a little bit of luck. It’s a sad story, but at least there’s some closure now for Medin’s family.
