An unidentified teenage boy who was found dead in a dump site has his name back, but detectives are still at a loss as to how he ended up alone and dead.
On Aug. 30, 1993, people cleaning up a dump site at Beardsley and Wright roads in Camarillo stumbled onto human leg bones. A medical examiner determined they belonged to a male between the ages of 13 and 18, but without further remains, no identification could be made. The boy’s bones went into storage, awaiting a day when forensic technology advanced enough to test them for DNA.
In March 2025, the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Officer gave a DNA sample to Othram, a private lab that specializes in helping law enforcement work on cold cases. The testing yielded possible matches to close relatives of the boy, and a DNA sample confirmed his identity. Joseph Patrick Reardon was born on June 17, 1970 in Fresno. According to California birth records, his mother was a 16-year-old and his father was 19; the teen couple had married just two months prior. A year later, they divorced.
Joseph’s life was seemingly a tumultuous one. According to a cold case investigator from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, he was living in a group home in Oxnard in 1985, the same year he enrolled at Channel Islands High. But the next year, he was attending Hughson High near Modesto. He would have been about 16 at the time, and according to investigators, he was going by the name of Joe Gilbreth, the surname of his mother’s ex-boyfriend.
“Critical details surrounding Mr. Reardon’s life and whereabouts remain unknown,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release. Anyone who knew him, “even in passing,” is urged to contact them. SFGATE’s request for more details, including whether Joseph was ever officially reported missing, were not returned by publication time. It’s not clear how long Joseph’s body was in Camarillo before it was found.
Anyone with information is asked to call 805-383-8739 or send an email to coldcase@ventura.org.
“Any detail, no matter how small, could be the key to bringing answers and closure to this case,” the sheriff’s office said.
