David Neily was 69 years old when he was last seen by family members in the coastal town of Albion in March 2006, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Saturday.
Neily went missing after he went to pick up his car from a horse farm owned by James DeNoyer. DeNoyer accused Neily of tipping off authorities about poor conditions. DeNoyer was charged with 36 counts of animal cruelty after 36 emaciated horses were removed from the farm, NBC News reported.
Lisa Neily claimed in a Change.org petition that police found her father’s two vehicles, his wallet and eyeglasses. His dog, Justice, was also discovered on the property. “Dad would not have left his dog,” she said.
The small California town David Neily was based in, Westport, had roughly 60 residents during that time. None of them have come forward with any information, NBC reported.
DeNoyer has denied any knowledge of or involvement in the disappearance, according to NBC.
The examinations of Neily’s remains, discovered in May 2020, found no evidence of trauma, the sheriff’s office statement said, and they continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding his disappearance.
Lisa Neily posted on Facebook that she is “not convinced foul play wasn’t involved.”
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
David Neily’s remains were found in an old-growth Douglas-fir forest in Branscomb, about 3.5 miles from where his car was found, the statement said.
DNA analysis of his remains and dental records examined by Jim Wood, a California Assembly member and forensic dentistry expert, determined they belonged to Neily.
“We’re not giving up hope that we can find out what happened to him. We’re not giving up,” Lisa Neily told the Associated Press on Sunday.
