LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Remains found near Hoover Dam in 2009 were identified using forensic genetic genealogy as a Michigan man last seen by his family in 1995.
On Nov. 11, 2009, construction workers hired to pour cement on the Highway 93 widening project took a break at Milepost 3 near the Hoover Dam, according to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office.
While on their break, one of the men saw what appeared to be a bone on the west side of the highway. The two men looed around the area and located additional bones. Believing them to be human, the construction company contacted National Park Service Agents.
According to the MCSO, the workers and agents searched through the area and recovered more bones, a sun-bleached pair of blue jeans, a damaged white towel, a sun-bleached red t-shirt, a black athletic shoe, and a green sleeping bag.
A second search a few days later found additional remains. All items were turned into the Mohave County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Detectives with Mohave County continued to investigate for several years in an attempt to find leads, but found no results.
In February 2022, a detective submitted a bone sample from the victim for scientific examination to the Arizona DPS lab to try and identify the victim. All attempts to identify him were met with negative results.
Several years later, in April 2024, Othram Labs received grant funding in order to pay for forensic genetic genealogy in an attempt to identify the man. A DNA profile was created and uploaded to a genealogy database for investigation.
In October, Mohave County investigators received a report that the man was a descendant of ancestors born in the mid-1800s and lived in Michigan. An investigation was started to find possible relatives of the man.
Interviewed siblings identified the man as William Herman Hietamaki, who had not been seen by his siblings since 1995. The siblings told investigators that Hietamaki, who went by his middle name Herman, was travelling in the southwest area of the United States when they last saw him.
Hietamaki was born on April 4, 1950, and grew up in the Trout Creek, Michigan area. He attended high school in the area and left Michigan to begin traveling after graduating. He also suffered from epileptic seizures.
His family last saw him when he visited his sister in New Mexico in 1995. A public records search showed he once lived in Las Vegas. The Medical Examiner’s office was unable to determine his cause of death, but estimated the year of his death to be between 2006 and 2008.
