A tibia bone found in Humboldt County has been traced back to a San Francisco man who disappeared in 2017, according to authorities.
A woman, Kim Cabrera, discovered the bone protruding from the banks of the Eel River in July, and on Monday the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it belonged to 39-year-old Mark Burleigh.
Burleigh, who has been missing since October 2017, was last seen in Garberville — a city in Humboldt County — where he was staying with friends, according to a missing persons poster that has been circulating since his disappearance was first revealed.
The sheriff’s office said he last had contact with a friend after being released from the Humboldt County Correctional Facility earlier that month.
After her chilling discovery, Cabrera, a student information technician, said she knew “immediately” it belonged to a human, but never thought she would know it.
Cabrera was left speechless after being told it was owned by Burleigh, whom she knew from her time as a teacher at Myers Flat Community School in the late 1990s.
“Once they confirmed it was human, by checking with the coroner, they sent a deputy to come get the bone, and they took it away to do DNA testing on it, and I had no idea of. It would turn out to be someone I knew and that was quite a surprise and a shock at the time,” Cabrera said. KRCRTV.
She vividly remembered Burleigh as a child who was “just full of life.”
A left tibia bone found in July by a woman, Kim Cabrera, is confirmed to belong to 39-year-old Mark Burleigh (pictured), who disappeared in October 2017.
Cabrera, who knew Burleigh when she was a teacher at his school in the late 1990s, found the bone protruding from the banks of the Eel River.
‘He was an entertaining boy, he was very energetic, just full of life, he seemed like he had a good future ahead of him and he was super young, he had his whole life ahead of him at the time and he was just a great boy to be with work,” Cabrera told the newspaper.
Although his tibia was found over the summer, search efforts, including K9s, were unable to find additional remains.
His mother, Jennifer Burleigh, doesn’t understand why more of her son’s remains haven’t been found as she has waited years for answers.
‘Last night I kept wondering: there must be more of him. I gave birth to a whole body… Please don’t give up, I need my son,” she told authorities and the community, according to a local newspaper. Redhead Blackband.
Although his tibia was found over the summer, search efforts, including K9s, were unable to find additional remains. (Photo: Eel River)
His mother, Jennifer Burleigh, doesn’t understand why more of her son’s remains haven’t been found as she has waited years for answers. (Pictured: the tibia)
She continued to post about her son’s mysterious disappearance, hoping to find out what happened to him.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating Burleigh’s case and has urged the public to contact them with any related information.
Meanwhile, Cabrera is still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she found his bone.
“It brought back all these memories of what he had been like as a child, and what a special child he was, and so it was a moment of grief and sadness, and I’m still processing it, it’s still very sad for me it turned out to be him,” she said.