SANTA CLARITA / ANTELOPE VALLEY : Identifying Body Found in Canyon Could Take Months

Investigators said Tuesday it could take months to determine if skeletal remains found near a wrecked truck in a canyon north of Castaic are those of a suspect from a January, 1993, murder.

The truck, discovered Saturday, belongs to Mark Douglas Snyder, 29, of Winnetka. Snyder’s family and friends said they are certain he committed suicide by driving the truck off the 400-foot cliff the night of the slaying. But officials want to make sure Snyder didn’t place the body of an innocent person in the truck and send the vehicle over the cliff to aid his escape.

Snyder is suspected of shooting his friend, Christ James Wetzel, 27, in the head at the garage of a Northridge home on Jan. 14, 1993. Those close to Snyder said they didn’t know why the incident occurred.

Next week, an anthropologist will examine the skull and other bone fragments found in the truck, but identifying the body will probably be a long process, said Scott Carrier, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

“They may try to return to that scene at some point, scour the area, and see what they can look for,” he added.

Snyder’s family is trying to obtain dental and other medical records that might aid the investigation, said Tom Broad, chief homicide investigator for the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division.

“There’s nothing remarkable about the teeth, so we’re going to have to take some time,” Broad said. “We don’t even know the dentist who treated him.”

Police officials recovered hair samples when they removed the truck from the canyon Monday, with one officer stating the hair was long, similar to Snyder’s. But Broad said detectives do not have hair samples from Snyder to compare to those found at the crash scene.