SHOULDA STUCK TO THE STREET CAR:

The mystery of Everett Ruess' disappearance is solved: An aging Navajo man's story of witnessing a homicide and burying the victim leads to remains -- and leads scientists to the answer to a 75-year puzzle. (Thomas H. Maugh II, May 2, 2009, LA Times)

His name might not rank with Amelia Earhart's and Judge Crater's, but the disappearance of Everett Ruess has been an enduring legend of the Southwest for 75 years.

Only 20 at the time of his disappearance, the writer, artist and environmentalist who has been compared to a young John Muir was last seen near Utah's Davis Gulch in 1934. Numerous search parties failed to find him, and authors have speculated widely about his demise. Many believed he drowned in the Colorado River.

Modern forensic technology, however, has shown that a weathered skeleton discovered last year by a young Navajo investigating an old family secret is that of Ruess, who was apparently killed by Ute teenagers, Colorado researchers said Thursday.

"I am pretty well convinced that this has got to be Everett," said author W.L. "Bud" Rusho of Salt Lake City, who has written extensively about Ruess.

Questions remain about the fate of Ruess' journals, box camera and other belongings, but the discovery caps a story that has been the subject of books, documentaries and abiding speculation.