BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS

Deepa Bharath

Costa Mesa police confirmed Monday that a jawbone a man found in his

backyard came from a human.

The bone was discovered Sunday in the 1900 block of Federal Avenue

when the resident was preparing to lay a concrete deck in his backyard,

said Costa Mesa Police Lt. Dale Birney.

“His rake pulled up the jawbone,” he said.

After tests, the Orange County coroner determined the bone was the

lower portion of a human’s jawbone, he said. However, an anthropologist

is studying the fragment to determine its age and condition, Birney said.

Additional excavation in the same area revealed no other remains, he

said.

“We still don’t know if there was a crime,” Birney said. “So there are

no suspects at this time.”