Orange County officials hope Identify the Missing Day will help break cold cases

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- A loved one's disappearance is one of the hardest things a family can deal with, especially if the case is never solved.

The Orange County Coroner's Office will hold an Identify the Missing Day on Saturday, using new technology to break cold cases and give much needed closure.

Percy Ray Carson, 26, was swimming in the ocean off Huntington Beach in July 1992 when he drowned.

"People are trying to help him; they can't get to him. Lifeguards go out, Orange County Sheriff's Department dive team goes out; they're unable to recover him," Orange County Senior Deputy Coroner Tiffany Williams said.

With no sign of his body, Carson's family filled out a missing person report. Two months later, there was a major break in the case when a femur washed up on shore in Seal Beach.

"She knew somebody had gone missing in the ocean two months prior, and now a leg bone had washed up in the ocean," Williams said.

But, without the right technology, the case went cold. Until this year, when the Orange County Coroner's Department reopened Carson's file. They tracked down Carson's family, ran DNA tests and confirmed the bone belonged to him.

"The family was very grateful, very thankful that we had not forgotten about Percy Ray Carson," Williams said.

Cases like this are why the coroner's office is holding an Identify the Missing Day. They want to help other families, like the Carsons, find closure.

"If your missing person is from Orange County or from anywhere else in the country, we want to help you," Orange County Supervising Deputy Coroner Allison O'Neal said.

According to the sheriff's department, there are 100 unidentified people at the Orange County Coroner's Office. Officials hope this event will help reduce that number.

"A lot of professionals in one place to help these families put all the pieces together, to try to get them some answers," O'Neal said.

The Identify the Missing Day will take place at the Orange County Coroner's Department from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.