A man was walking along a rocky, picturesque shoreline of Trinidad Head, located about 25 miles north of Eureka, when he spotted something unusual and unnerving.

The unidentified man’s discovery in February 1993 turned out to be a partial human skull that he handed over to the nearby Fortuna Police Department.

To help identify the remains, the police forwarded them to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department, which extracted a DNA sample and entered that into the California Missing Person DNA Database and the National Unidentified Person DNA index.

The remains were unidentified until the Sheriff’s Department announced this week it had linked the skull to the 1987 disappearance and death of a 48-year-old woman from Trinity County. The discovery was made through the aid of a third-party forensic tester and a federal grant.

Authorities believe the skull fragments are the third set of remains belonging to Kay Josephine Medin, also known as Kay Adams, an elementary school teacher from Hyampom, who disappeared from that rural Northern California community in 1987.

No witnesses, potential suspects or charges have ever filed in what authorities classified as a cold case homicide. Her husband, Nickolas, died in 2018.

While there’s been no progress in finding out who killed Medin, this latest set of remains provides law enforcement another clue.

Law enforcement officials credit Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, for providing a community project grant designed to help clear a backlog of cold cases.

Within a short span, the Sheriff’s Department contacted Othram, a Texas-based forensic laboratory that specializes in genome sequencing that helps disentangle cold cases. The company claimed its assisted in solving 47 cases involving unsolved murders, unidentified remains or unresolved sexual assault kits over the last 90 days.

The company utilized its forensic-grade genome sequencing to construct a DNA profile of the DNA sample from the discovered skull fragment.

In September, Ortham generated new leads on the possible identity of the skull, which included Medin, to the sheriff’s department. Included in the report were possible genetic relatives, including a daughter.

Sheriff’s investigators located the daughter, obtained a DNA sample and confirmed the skull was that of Medin.

Ortham said in a release that Medin’s case was the 63rd instance of individuals identified in California through its testing efforts.

Inquiries sent to Ortham and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department were not returned.

“While Ms. Medin’s case is tragic, I am relieved for the community that it has been brought to rest,” Huffman wrote in an emailed statement. “Funding like this to help solve cold cases can not only bring justice, but closure to families and communities. I’m proud we were able to do some of that in this case.”

During the summer of 1987, Medin went missing while her husband was on a business trip.

The family property was searched, while friends, family and her personal doctor were interviewed.

Medin’s purse and personal belongings were found in her home, and the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office listed her disappearance as suspicious.

Reports from the time said around 100 people, mostly volunteers, searched throughout remote and woodsy Trinity County.

Distributed by Tribune News Service.