OJAI : Dental Files Sought to Identify Remains

Coroners trying to identify the skeletal remains of an Ojai woman they believe drowned in a 1969 flood have been unsuccessful in locating dental records to confirm her identity, a Ventura County deputy coroner said Friday.

The bones and teeth discovered earlier this week on a hillside below an Oak View road may be those of Jeanetta LaBelle, a 39-year-old woman who police believe was drowned in a Jan. 25 flood 21 years ago, said Mitch Breese of the Ventura County coroner’s office.

To confirm her identity, a dental comparison needs to be made with the five teeth that were found and old X-rays, Breese said.

“We need somebody who has done dental work on her,” he said.

Coroners located one area dentist who had treated LaBelle, but the records had been lost, Deputy Coroner Jim Wingate said. Wingate said that although it is unlikely that another dentist will come forward, the case will remain open.

“We always hope that something will turn up,” he said.

While rescuing a driver whose car had plunged off California 33 Monday, rescue workers discovered a skull about 60 feet down the steep hillside on the southeast corner of the highway’s intersection with Creek Road.

After the rescue, about 10 members of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department’s Search and Rescue Squad, four detectives and the coroner combed the area and found some leg, finger and rib bones, as well as the five teeth.

In 1969, records indicate, one woman drowned in the San Antonio Creek in Oak View and the floods killed another 11 people in Ventura County, said Francis Rugin, a librarian for the Ventura County Museum of History and Art. The storms began Jan. 18 and flooded area rivers and streams including the Ventura and Santa Clara rivers, and caused about $15 million in damage, she said.