Hikers Find Human Skeletal Remains in Car Over the Side of Kanan Dume

• Authorities Confirm Vehicle Belongs to Missing Man

BY BILL KOENEKER

Hikers on a jaunt in upper Zuma Canyon near Newton Canyon made a gruesome discovery on Sunday when they observed what appeared to be human skeletal remains in a vehicle that had apparently crashed down a hillside along Kanan Dume Road, according to authorities.
One of the hikers noticed a glint in the sun, and the five men indicated they began to climb toward the vehicle where they made the discovery. They then climbed out of the canyon near Newton Falls and called 911.
Deputies from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s station responded to the call and notified Malibu Search and Rescue. Working with the search and rescue unit, a Los Angeles County Coroner’s investigator descended to the vehicle to retrieve the remains. Homicide was then contacted and took over the investigation.
Some of the MSR team members who had proceeded down to the vehicle had to be airlifted out of the steep canyon.
The car was found pointed downward about 800 feet below the mountain roadway.
The still-to-be identified human skeleton was taken to the Los Angeles Coroner’s office where it is being examined for identification, according to Detective Gary Sica, from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Department.
Sica confirmed that investigators have determined that the vehicle was registered to Jeffery Scott Howard, who was reported missing in July, 2006.
Sica said the coroner’s office would employ a forensics dental expert to determine if the remains are Howard’s.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the coroner’s office said that a specific identification had not been determined, but it has been confirmed that the skeletal remains are human.