6 years after kids found skull, authorities make ID

A mystery surrounding a skull discovered by a group of children in Colorado's mountains six years ago is partially solved thanks to a genealogical investigation. The Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office said this week they now know who the skull belonged to.

It was a man who was born in the 1950s and who had become distant from his family. His name was David "Michael" Crady.

The disturbing discovery was made on May 11, 2018, in Lawson, which is located in a northern part of Clear Creek County. The children found the skull lying near a power pole. It was missing part of its jaw and tooth fragments were found nearby.

Investigators are now hoping someone will help them determine how Crady died.

After the kids found the bones, an examination by a forensic anthropologist determined there was no evidence of trauma on the skull. They also determined the following:

- The person was male.
- He had been dead for a while (possibly several years).

About five years later the Colorado Bureau of Investigation tried to move the unsolved case along using what the sheriff's office called an "advanced genealogy technique" in a news release. Their office reviewed DNA that had been extracted in 2018 and wound up finding a match for it. They then reached out to the family of Crady and asked one or more of them to provide a DNA sample. They did, and the CBI now says -- with 99.99% accuracy -- that it was Crady whose skull had been found all those years back.

Crady was born on Oct. 4, 1955. The sheriff's office released a photo of him that was taken in his senior year of high school.

"The death investigation remains open," sheriff's office staff wrote in their news release, which they sent out on Wednesday. "There are no leads regarding the circumstances of Mr. Crady's death or how the skull ended up at the discovery site."

If anyone has information that might help the sheriff's office solving the final part of the case (Crady's cause of death), they are asked to call the Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office at (303) 679-2393.