On Sept. 7, 1991, Campbell was reported missing by his mother.
He was last seen in Oakley a week before by a friend, police said.
“Our investigators worked at it tirelessly for a long time,” advised Lt. Chris Polen. “There was no clue as to what happened to him.”
Numerous interviews were conducted, agencies from other areas were contacted.
“We even called Sac County officials two days prior to (a) body being discovered in the Sacramento Delta area,” he said. “They said no. Then two days later, a body appears in the Delta.”
Back then, there were only the most basic of forensics techniques, Polen said, and the body could not be identified.
Meanwhile, in ensuing years, detectives continued working with the family, who continued to hold fundraisers to create a reward fund. Investigators also continued to follow up on leads.
Though the case eventually went cold, Campbell and his family were never forgotten.
Earlier this month, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department’s Cold Case Unit picked up the case and used new fingerprint technology. The prints from the body found in 1991 matched those in the state Department of Justice database for Campbell, Polen said, and the Sacramento sheriff’s officials called Vacaville police to notify them.
