14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, authorities from Madera disclosed a statement associating the two bone remains found earlier with the person of James Stephen Fossett. They were discovered last week, about half a mile (800 meters) from the place his plane crashed 14 months ago, in Sierra Nevada, California. A hiker who walked off the regular trail in Sierra Nevada, close to the Mammoth Lake, was more successful than an entire year of costly searches performed on a 20,000 square mile area.
He came upon Fossett's pilot's license, and a heap of $100 bills, which led him to the billionaire explorer's plane remains last month. As of last week, his tennis shoes, driver's license and a pair of large bones were also found, bearing animal bite marks. The American businessman and adventurer disappeared on September 3, 2007, after leaving aboard his plane on a short pleasure flight from the Nevada ranch of hotel magnate Barron Hilton.
John Anderson, the Sheriff from Madera County, stated that the DNA tests performed by the state Department of Justice had positively identified, beyond any doubt, the bones as belonging to Stephen Fossett. Still, in order not to cause any further grief to the family, he refused to offer any other detail about the remains.
Peggy Fossett, the wife of the late explorer, thanked the authorities for their help in recovering her husband's remains during a public statement she made yesterday. “I am hopeful that the DNA identification puts a definitive end to all of the speculation surrounding Steve's death. This has been an incredibly difficult time for me, and I am thankful to everyone who helped bring closure to this tragedy,” she shared.
In the meanwhile, a commission from the National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the exact cause of the disaster. What has been stated, though, is that it is certain that the billionaire aviator died immediately on the plane's impact.