LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Human remains found nearly 15 years ago near the Hoover Dam have finally been identified.
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 looked around the area and discovered 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 in to the Mohave County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Detectives with Mohave County continued to investigate for several years but to no avail.
In February 2022, a detective submitted a bone sample from the victim for scientific examination to the Arizona Department of Public Safety lab to try and identify the victim. All attempts to identify the remains were met with negative results.
Several years later, in April 2024, Othram Labs received grant funding to pay for forensic genetic genealogy in an attempt to identify the remains. A DNA profile was created and uploaded to a genealogy database for investigation.
In October, Mohave County investigators received a report that the remains belonged to a man whose ancestors were 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 since 1995. The siblings told investigators that Hietamaki, who went by his middle name Herman, was traveling in the Southwest when they last saw him.
Hietamaki was born on April 4, 1950, and grew up around Trout Creek, Michigan. 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. No additional details were immediately available.
