BEAUMONT, Texas — Bones discovered this week, that are believed to belong to a Port Neches man who went missing in 2008, will be sent to the University of North Texas for identification.
The bones, believed to be of Adrian Lozoya, were discovered Wednesday in a car found submerged in the canal along Texas 73 near Memorial Blvd by Port Arthur Police and divers from the fire department.
Crime scene techs from the Jefferson County Crime lab collected all the bones that were found in the mud that was in the red 1993 Acura when it was pulled from the canal.
The bones are being sent to the Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas in Denton for identification according to officials at the Jefferson County Crime Lab.
The forensics lab there provides anthropological examinations of skeletal remains to determine sex, ancestry, age, stature and possible signs of trauma according to the UNT website.
The lab has also processed the majority of missing persons DNA profiles in the U.S. that are listed in the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, according to the site.
Crime lab specialists will now try to match dental records or take a DNA sample from the bones to try and confirm if it's Lozoya Port Neches Police Chief Paul Lemoine told 12News.
"If you compare dental records, then that's a pretty quick identification if you have that," Chief Lemoine said. "At this point in time, I don't know what all has been recovered. So if it's not dental, then you would have to go to DNA. Of course you would need a comparative sample."
Lemoine estimated it could take months to make the identification.
The car containing the bones found this week is similar to the car Lozoya was driving when he was reported missing 14 years ago according to Texas Equusearch.
A page on the Texas Equusearch website dedicated to Lozoya's case says that he was last seen driving a red 1992 Acura Integra with a different colored door.
Lozoya was last seen at around 3 a.m. on Sunday, May 4, 2008, at the iHop restaurant on Memorial Blvd according to Texas Equusearch. The iHop is about three miles north of where police made their discovery this week.
Lemoine remembers Lozoya's missing person case from 2008. If the remains found match, he believes it could give answers to a family that has been grieving for 14 years.
A family member of Lozoya heard about the car being found and called Port Neches Police Lemoine said.
The search for another man, Elton Dewayne Harris, 43, who was last seen in Port Arthur on July 24, 2022 led police to the canal this week.
Police were searching for Harris when they came across two cars and found Harris' body in one car and the bones in the other car.
An autopsy has been ordered on Harris' body police said.
This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.