Michigan

Human remains found near Hoover Dam in 2009 identified as Michigan man last seen in 1995

Published

1 year ago

October 30, 2024

Human remains found near Hoover Dam in 2009 identified as Michigan man last seen in 1995

(CBS DETROIT) – Human remains found near the Hoover Dam in 2009 have been identified as those of a Michigan man last seen by his family in 1995.

In November 2009, construction crews were on break while working on a cement project on Highway 93 at Milepost 3 near the Hoover Dam when they found what appeared to be a bone, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said.

The workers looked around the area and found additional bones that they believed were human. Construction workers and National Park Service agents searched the area and found additional bones, a sun-bleached pair of blue jeans, a damaged white towel, a sun-bleached red t-shirt, a black athletic shoe and a green sleeping bag. A second search days later found additional remains.

Mohave County Sheriff’s detectives continued the search for years to generate leads but without any results.

In February 2022, a Mohave County Sheriff’s detective obtained a bone sample from the victim and sent it to the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s lab in hopes of identifying the man. A sample was also sent to the University of North Texas, where it was stored for analysis, but an identification was not made.

Two years would go by before Othram, a genetic lab in Texas, received grant funding in April 2024 to pay for forensic genetic genealogy for this case. Using the sample from the University of North Texas, Ortham created a DNA profile and uploaded that profile to a genealogy database for investigation.

William Herman Hietamaki grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Mohave County Sheriff’s Office

In October, investigators received a report that the man was a descendant of ancestors born in the mid-1800s and lived in Michigan. Detectives interviewed the brother of the man, who was identified as William Herman Hietamaki. Siblings interviewed say Hietamaki went by his middle name, Herman, and had been traveling the southwest United States when he was last seen in 1995.

Hietamaki was born on April 4, 1950, and grew up in Trout Creek in the western Upper Peninsula. He attended high school and mechanic’s school in Michigan.

According to officials, Hietamaki left Michigan shortly after graduating from high school and was known to hitchhike and live a nomadic lifestyle. His family last saw him while visiting his sister in New Mexico in 1995. Public records show Hietamaki resided in Las Vegas at one time, and he was known to suffer from epileptic seizures.

The medical examiner’s office was unable to determine Hietamaki’s cause of death but estimated that he died between 2006 and 2008.

Joseph Buczek

Joe Buczek is manager of digital content and promotion at CBS Detroit. He previously worked at WWTV, the Grand Traverse Insider, the Leader and the Kalkaskian, the Oakland Press and the Morning Sun.

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Michigan

Michigan basketball enters Players Era tourney with ‘growth mindset’

Published

5 hours ago

November 24, 2025

Press Room

Michigan basketball enters Players Era tourney with ‘growth mindset’

Four games into the 2025-26 season, Michigan basketball remains unblemished.

The No. 6 Wolverines (4-0) haven’t always looked flawless, but they’ve found ways to get wins against different styles. A zone team (Oakland), a pair of Power Four opponents (Wake Forest and TCU) and most recently a pesky mid-major (Middle Tennessee State) have all provided different tests.

The slate gets even harder this week when Michigan travels to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival men’s championship tournament, featuring 18 teams – 11 of which are in the top 50 of KenPom entering the event. So, what are coach Dusty May’s goals entering this type of environment?

“Hope for some vitamin D, hope we stay healthy and hope these three games in three days show us what we need to do or continue to do better to win the Big Ten Tournament,” he said. “I know some coaches or programs don’t value as much (the tournament). … but we want to be in position to compete for it.

“So three games in three days gives us an opportunity to prepare like that, to take care of our bodies and prioritize the next game immediately.”

Michigan won the Big Ten Tournament last season and May clearly is already thinking ahead. That said, it’s not the only goal the Wolverines have in the desert. Michigan has struggled to get its 3-point shooting going, hitting below 33% in each of its past three games and 20% or worse in two of them.

The tests don’t get easier for U-M this week, facing San Diego State on Monday, Nov. 24 (10:30 p.m., TruTV) which is No. 19 nationally in defense per KenPom and Auburn the following night (8:30 p.m., TNT), which is No. 36.

It’s unclear who the Wolverines will play for their third game, which could be either Wednesday or Thursday, and depends on how the first two go. Either way, with three games in 72 hours, there’s a chance Michigan will go a bit deeper into its bench, which could include some time for sharp shooting freshman Winters Grady.

“I could see us in the near future going with a little bit longer, deeper rotation,” May said.

Michigan won the Fort Myers Tip-Off a year ago during feast week, which served as a spring board for a 5-0 start to Big Ten play and helped them figure out their Danny Wolf-led identity.

Michigan is still figuring out its rotations this year, as far as lineup combinations, minute allocations and assessing which pairings lead to certain outcomes on each side of the court. May has said that he’s pleased with his team’s start in some ways, namely the toughness.

“Nothing gives me confidence we’re going to pick up a few quality wins other than we have a really good team, we’re capable of playing really good basketball,” May said following his team’s 84-61 win over MTSU. “I haven’t watched San Diego State, I’ve watched Auburn. Obviously we’re very familiar with them, they sent us home last year.

“The confidence I have to go get a couple wins is simply because we have a really good staff and really good players. Now it’s the time to turn the page and start studying what we need to do.”

What U-M needs to do is protect the ball better. Its turned the ball over 56 times the past three games and SDSU is No. 17 in the country, forcing turnovers on 23.8% of opponents possessions.

The Aztecs are deep, with their bench playing 43.4% of all minutes. Auburn, meanwhile, is run-and-gun team. They rarely turn it over (No. 24 nationally), shoot well inside the arc (62.4%, No. 24) and do so because they get so many high-percentage looks on putbacks (44.0% offensive rebounding rate, No. 10).

“We’ve got to be able to learn on the fly where we don’t have time to practice in between – we go straight from a film session, walk through and be able to apply things,” May said. “That’s the secret sauce of elite teams. So hopefully we’ll see us doing that on the fly.”

Should U-M win the tournament, it would be a positive on multiple levels, most notably some Quad 1 wins for the resume.

But the staff has been around the sport long enough to know the week will not make or break the season one way or the other.

“We are 100% a growth mindset program. We need to be better (when we return) next week than we are today,” May said. “We need to continue to learn more about our team and whether we win or we lose, we’re not going to be too high or too low because our season is long and we have a high, high ceiling.”

Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.

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Michigan Football true freshman burns redshirt vs Maryland Terrapins

Published

24 hours ago

November 23, 2025

Press Room

Michigan Football true freshman burns redshirt vs Maryland Terrapins

The Michigan Wolverines took care of business against the Maryland Terrapins on Saturday, 45-20. This team is one of the youngest in the Big Ten, and even more young guys had a chance to play in this one.

Despite the return of Cole Sullivan, linebacker Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng still got in the game and burned his redshirt in College Park.

Here is where the freshmen stand 11 games into the season. An asterisk (*) indicates they saw playing time against Maryland:

Once again, wide receiver Andrew Marsh stood out as a key component of Michigan’s offense, and now special teams. He finished the day with 147 all-purpose yards. He had one long return against Maryland for 39 yards that set Michigan up nicely late in the game.

His quarterback, Bryce Underwood, had a nice day, too. He was 16-of-23 with two touchdowns and no interceptions. On the ground, Underwood had eight carries for 20 yards. Running back Jasper Parker got into the end zone and had eight carries for 23 yards.

We also saw some of the freshmen offensive linemen, with Ty Haywood (left tackle) and Avery Gach (special teams) earning some garbage time snaps in this one.

Without Ernest Hausmann, we saw more plays from some of the younger linebackers. Chase Taylor had a crucial heads-up play on Maryland’s onside kick, and he also had one tackle. Edge rusher Nate Marshall, defensive back Jordan Young, defensive back Elijah Dotson, and the aforementioned Owusu-Boateng all ended up on the stat sheet at the end of the day.

Michigan has just one game left this season, The Game in Ann Arbor. Michigan will have a chance to win five straight games against the Buckeyes. While we’re waiting to hear about some crucial injuries ahead of the matchup against the Buckeyes, Michigan will likely still rotate these young players on the offense. We’ll just have to wait until Saturday to see if they’re still on the field for the same amount of snaps.

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