(August 24, 2007)--An anthropologist, a new reconstruction of the face that once animated a skull and a detective have unlocked the mystery of remains found in a Louisiana landfill in 1979.

Twenty-year-old Victor Barajas of McAllen had been missing even longer.

His sister, then living in Leesville, La. reported him missing in January of 1976.

Bossier Parish detectives in 1982 gave the bones to Mary Manhein, who was then a graduate student at Louisiana State University, hoping she could identify them.

Manhein is now director of the LSU Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services Lab, called FACES.

Over the years she kept the remains and periodically re-evaluated them.

She asked imaging specialist Eileen Barrow in March to update the facial reconstruction.

Manhein later took it with her to a workshop with law officers.

DeSoto, La. sheriff's Lieutenant Robert Davidson told Manhein that the reconstruction looked a bit like a photo on a new cold case Web site.

But Davidson couldn't find any of the relatives listed in an old file for Barajas.

So he turned to a McAllen newspaper, which publishes English and Spanish editions.

It published a story in both.

The day it appeared, a nephew called Davidson, who asked if any surviving siblings would submit DNA samples to check against the bones.

A brother and sister of Barajas did.

It was a three-way match.

Relatives of Barajas were informed this week that the remains had been identified.

Records show the FBI wanted Barajas for probation violation.

Information on the Desoto Parish, La. Sheriff’s Office Web site indicates Barajas had driven to Louisiana with Michael Norris Catlett in late December 1975.

Catlett’s truck was found on Jan. 1, 1976, with 400 pounds of marijuana inside of it.

The sheriff’s office posting says the marijuana was to have been delivered to two men in Mansfield, La.

Catlett, the sheriff’s office posting says, was a known drug dealer with ties to a Mexican drug cartel in Edinburg.

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