Remains Found In NorCal Creek Bed Identified As Palmdale Resident
PALMDALE (CBSLA.com) — Human remains discovered in Northern California creek bed have been identified as those of a missing 19-year-old Palmdale resident, authorities said Thursday.
The remains of John Alpert were discovered on May 15 by a fisherman in Dry Creek in Roseville, the Placer County Sheriff's Coroner's Division said.
Alpert was last seen in March when he left home to travel north with a group of illegal freight train riders.
"He stopped communicating with his family soon after he left. Concerned for his safety, his family reported him missing to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office on March 25," Dee Dee Gunther of the Roseville Police Department said.
Detectives believe that Alpert arrived in Roseville on a freight train between March 16 and 17 and died sometime thereafter.
His body had unexplained injuries consistent with blunt force trauma, and detectives have classified his death as a homicide.
Authorities have few leads in the case and were asking for the public's help.
Anyone who has any information about Alpert's death, or who saw Alpert in Roseville in mid-March, or had any contact with freight train riders in Roseville around that time is asked to call the Roseville Police Department's Investigations Unit at (916)774-5070.
