Kathline Kinnison was taking a stroll along the sand in San Clemente when she came across something unexpected.
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The sight of teeth sticking out of what looked to be the bottom of a jaw stopped her in her tracks, she said, an odd find at about 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 17, near Linda Lane Beach.
“I was like, ‘Wow, what is that?” she said. “I kind of had this feeling — maybe don’t touch it. It seemed unlike any other beach find.”
Kathline Kinnison was walking along the sand in San Clemente on June 17, 2026 when she came across what looked like human teeth and a lower jaw bone. It seems her suspicions were right, according to the Orange County Sherriff’s Department. (Photo courtesy of Kinnison)
Kathline Kinnison was walking along the sand in San Clemente on June 17, 2026 when she came across what looked like human teeth and a lower jaw bone. It seems her suspicions were right, according to the Orange County Sherriff’s Department. (Photo courtesy of Kinnison)
Kathline Kinnison was walking along the sand in San Clemente on June 17, 2026 when she came across what looked like human teeth and a lower jaw bone. It seems her suspicions were right, according to the Orange County Sherriff’s Department. (Photo courtesy of Kinnison)
Kathline Kinnison was walking along the sand in San Clemente on June 17, 2026 when she came across what looked like human teeth and a lower jaw bone. It seems her suspicions were right, according to the Orange County Sherriff’s Department. (Photo courtesy of Kinnison)
Kathline Kinnison was walking along the sand in San Clemente on June 17, 2026 when she came across what looked like human teeth and a lower jaw bone. It seems her suspicions were right, according to the Orange County Sherriff’s Department. (Photo courtesy of Kinnison)
She alerted a lifeguard in Tower 6, and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department was contacted, sending someone to pick up the specimen.
“You never know what the story is — it would be cool if we could get some answers,” Kinnison said.
She posted the photos on social media, and the speculations came flooding in.
Some wondered if it was from a marine mammal. One person, an archaeologist, said “with absolute certainty” it is a human jaw.
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Others wondered what could have happened: A drowning? A shark attack? Murder?
“Hopefully a family gets closure from this for a missing loved one,” one commenter wrote.
Kinnison, too, is curious about the origin, she said.
“It is human, believed to be of Native American ancestry,” Sgt. Lizbeth Gwisdalla, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department, said Thursday, adding that the coroner’s office has sent the teeth and jaw to the Native American Heritage Committee.
The San Clemente area was once home to a thriving Native American tribal community, the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians Acjachemen Nation.
“It needs to go through a whole process and all the things involved with trying to figure out where this came from,” Gwisdalla said.
When asked if such a find is rare, apparently it is not unheard of, and similar items have been discovered at area beaches in the past.
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