Authorities in Arizona identify victim of 1976 homicide, ask for help finding family, info

Authorities in Arizona identified the victim from a homicide at Katherine's Landing on Lake Mohave nearly 47 years ago.

On November 23, 1976, hikers discovered human remains in a shallow cave in an elevated desert area about six miles east of Katherine's Landing, about 100 miles south of Las Vegas. The victim was described as a 5-foot-8, 140-150-pound, 30-35-year-old man, the Mohave County Sheriff's Office said.

Investigators concluded that the victim was shot in the head at close range, according to the sheriff's office, and fingerprints were then obtained during the autopsy, but detectives were unable to identify the victim. The victim remained unidentified and there were no investigative leads.

Until this year.

In October, the Sheriff's Office Special Investigations Unit began a review of the case. Investigators compared digital images of the victim's fingerprints obtained in 1976 to all available national fingerprint records – a resource not available at the time of the initial investigation.

The victim was then positively identified as Luis Alonso Paredes, who was originally from El Salvador. Detectives learned of the possibility that Paredes may have been living or working in the Las Vegas area at the time of his death.

They also found that Parades possibly was employed with the U.S Coast Guard and the U.S Navy in the San Francisco Bay Area nearly a decade before his homicide. Investigators have been unable to find relatives of Paredes.

The Sheriff's Office is asking anyone with information about the case or that could assist officers in locating Paredes' family, to contact the office.