Teen killed in Southern California crash in 1978 finally identified

A teenager killed in a horrific Inland Empire crash nearly five decades ago has finally been identified through forensic genetic genealogy, officials announced. The June 2, 1978, crash occurred when the driver of a Volkswagen Beetle lost control while traveling westbound on Arlington Avenue in Riverside, crossed the center divider, and collided with a sport utility vehicle, according to a news release from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office. The driver was the lone survivor of the crash. While three of the victims were identified, the driver told investigators he had only met the unidentified male victim a day earlier and knew nothing about him. Family members of the other victims also could not identify him. With little to go on, officials said investigators exhausted all available leads at the time, and the case eventually went cold. Decades later, advances in forensic science, along with federal funding and forensic genetic genealogy, allowed investigators to revisit the case and identify the victim as 18-year-old Mark Alan Smith. According to the Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner’s Bureau, funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Missing and Unidentified Human Remains grant program made it possible to exhume the victim’s remains for additional testing. GenGenies, a nonprofit organization, funded the forensic genetic genealogy work that generated the investigative leads needed to identify Smith. Officials also credited the Department of Justice’s Missing Persons DNA Program for helping bring the decadeslong investigation to a close. In a statement released on behalf of Smith’s sister, Pam Bright, and their family, officials said the identification provides answers they had waited nearly half a century to receive. “Together, these efforts have finally given Mark Smith’s family the closure they have long awaited,” the statement said.