Bones found in Napa County were missing Santa Rosa brothers

Bones found last spring on a remote hillside in northern Napa County belonged to two Santa Rosa brothers missing since 2014, a Napa County sheriff’s official said Tuesday.

Genetic testing confirmed the identities as Mario Avendano, 31, and Florentino Avendano, 45, sheriff’s Capt. Keith Behlmer said.

The bones, found in the area of Butts Canyon, had no obvious signs of trauma or other evidence that might suggest foul play.

Sheriff’s investigators suspect the men may have died after being caught in a July 2014 wildland fire.

Known as the Butts fire, the blaze burned 4,300 acres, including the area where the bones were found.

The Avendano brothers were last seen in June 2014, and family members filed missing person reports with Santa Rosa police in early January 2015.

Police detectives looked for the men, including leads that the two had been dropped off in the Butts Canyon area not long before the fire and that they may have been working at a large, clandestine marijuana grow in the area, which burned in the blaze, Santa Rosa police Sgt. Josh Ludtke said.

Santa Rosa detectives had heard from firefighters that two Hispanic men were seen running in the area during the initial firefight, Ludtke said.

Ludtke said it wasn’t clear why the family waited six months to report them missing.

He said the trail grew cold in the area of the fire.

Then, in March, the white bone of a human skull along Butts Canyon Road caught the eye of a passing concrete worker, who contacted authorities, Behlmer said.

That launched an investigation and, for a few days, Napa sheriff’s search-and-rescue volunteers worked in the rain, scouring the nearby hillsides near Butts Canyon and Snell Valley roads.

The volunteers found several bones - though not full skeletons and no second skull - but enough to indicate the remains were from two people.

As the missing Santa Rosa men were last known to be in that area, Santa Rosa police joined the effort.

The bones were given to a Chico State University anthropologist for analyzing. DNA from two sisters of the men were used to compare with DNA from the bones.

After the connection was confirmed, family members were informed this week, according to Behlmer.

It was never determined why the Santa Rosa men were in the rural area, Behlmer said.

Butts Canyon stretches between southern Lake County and northern Napa County.

Lake County law enforcement has wiped out about 42,000 pot plants in the Butts Canyon area this year, including ?24,540 plants near the Napa County line in September, according to a sheriff’s report.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter?@rossmannreport.