Bill Ewasko found?

[RichardK]

Was a coroner's report ever issued? I would like to know if the skeletal remains showed any signs of injury. Perhaps a broken bone or skull fracture were observed.

[Ric Capucho]

I was one of the group that discovered the remains. I am curious whether anyone has heard anything on a positive ID of the remains. Hard to imagine any other outcome , but it is weird that there was lots of press for a week, followed by crickets.

Hi wbrokob!

Curious about a few things, all a little less macabre:

Any signs of clothing, hat or whatever, and what colour or colours?
Did you see any empty water bottles? Anything else other than the backpack?

Ric

[Ric Capucho]

As we found with the Orbeso/Nguyen case, the coroner report may take a while, and once available it will likely need paying for a copy.

Ric

[wbrokob]

I had reached out through the contact page of the SBSD website mostly out of curiosity. I was actually shocked when I got the call.

We saw no clothing, just the backpack.

There was a small 12-16 oz (I think) single use plastic water bottle near the pack.

I did not ask about an actual report...he did say that they had lots of much more recently deceased folks around the same time

[curiousperson]

Not much to add. I reached out to SBSD via my law enforcement email address, but received no more information than has already been shared. From my own death investigations, I can confirm that coroner's reports can take quite a while.

To Tom and other incredible folks that searched for Bill:

I'm glad Bill was brought home. I've been following this story since 2014. I appreciate that Tom took the time to find Bill's resting place *and* take photos of the site when he felt it was respectful to do so. Seeing where Bill ended up was cathartic. It felt like a bittersweet epilogue to this 12 year journey.

Appreciate everyone's efforts, and look forward to further information (if there's any to be had).

[OtherHand]

I completed some unfinished Ewasko business today, what I take to be the 12th anniversary of his demise. The morning of June 27, 2010 was the date of his phone's last ping.

I had previously mentioned that on 2/14/22, when I visited the site his remains were found a week earlier, I posted I found a "personal item". This was Ewasko's set of compact binoculars, which I came across down the slope towards the wash to the west of his remains, thus establishing his probable route. It should have been spotted and retrieved by the recovery team (it was in plain, open sight), but wasn't, which put me in an uncomfortable situation.

I knew Ewasko's location would soon leak out and leaving the binocs in place opened the possibility of them being grabbed by souvenir hunters. I considered taking them to either the rangers or the Sheriff for their return to the family, but I've had bad personal experience with this route and really felt I couldn't trust either agency to do the right thing. Since I had contact info for several of Ewasko's family members I VERY reluctantly decided I'd repatriate the binocs myself. I wasn't really comfortable going this direction, but I viewed it as the least uncomfortable path.

As soon as I returned, I sent off emails and had exchanges with several family members. I was a little surprised to find lukewarm interest in their return. I certainly wasn't going to push anyone to accept them or intrude into private matters. But now I was stuck with the things. What to do, since I didn't want them on my bookshelf any longer than necessary. After a little reflection it seemed proper to return them from whence they came.

Stupidly early on the morning 6/27/22 my wife Jeri and I drove to JTNP, hiked in to the site, and buried the binocs in a discrete and appropriate location. Although it was only about a 35 minute hike in, the temps were so nasty we were well over prepared. Based upon the time of Ewasko's final cell ping, we were likely there around the same time of the day as he. It felt rather grim from the heat, and the rock circle his remains were found in made perfect sense as it provided the only morning shade for some distance.

This first pic shows the binocs in place at the lower left as originally found. That's Quail Mountain just left of center and the mouth of Smithwater at the right edge of the frame. Samuelson's Rocks are barely visible as a mound above the foreground ridge on the plain towards the left of the pic. I believe Ewasko reached this spot from the mouth of Smithwater via the wash in the foreground below. The location of the binocs, and the topography suggest to me he dropped them here on his ascent and are not the result of natural or animal activity.



A closer view of the binocs showing the severe weathering after 11 1/2 years in the sun. The exposed plastic covering the aluminum optical barrels had completely disintegrated. Plastic shaded and in contact with the ground had survived.



So....I'm done.

[bretpct]

I'm also surprised the family did not want the binocs, but what a fitting end to this odyssey.

[OtherHand]

It's not like they explicitly said they didn't want them. It was more like a series of emails that said "we'll have so and so contact you about them to see what they want to do", and I never heard anything back. Crickets. Maybe the ball was dropped at their end, but I felt uncomfortable enough retrieving the binocs off the site, I wasn't about to bug the family about sending them to them. Should the family change their mind, I sealed them well before burying, and I know exactly where they are.

[Ric Capucho]

Hi Tom,

A poignant and thoughtful way to handle the binoculars situation.

Hopefully, that final trip serves as closure for you after all those many years.

I’ll (finally) visit JTNP late July as a few days stop over during a north to south California road trip. Care to imagine some of the places I’ll hike? Erm, scratch Smithwater.

Take care, Tom, and also the very many people who’ve posted on this thread over the years.

Ric

[JustaSpectator]

Hello guys I just wanted to register and thank all of you for all your efforts to find Bill. I did not know him but became fascinated with the search for him thanks to Tom Mahood and found this forum. Thanks to people like him and posters here it made me realize even with billions of people in the world there is always those willing to find those lost and no one is forgotten. I probably will go back to just lurking but I had to let you know your time and work was valued. Take care!