Santa Barbara detectives reopen 1975 cold case investigation
SANTA BARBARA —
Detectives are reopening the investigation into the decades-old unsolved killing of a teenage boy near Santa Barbara with the help of DNA technology that didn’t exist at the time of his death.
The body of 16-year-old Paul Ornelas was found near railroad tracks in an unincorporated area on June 21, 1975, but an investigation over several years never led to arrests, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said this week.
“Ornelas’ unsolved murder has left his family with lingering grief,” the office said.
Now, investigators have a tool called the ANDE Rapid DNA instrument that has been successfully used in critical cases such as the 2019 Conception dive boat fire that killed 34 people off Santa Cruz Island. In that case, the device was used to rapidly identify the dead.