FAIRFIELD — Eric Bartelink heads up a lab that is special in its nature, one that has doubled its caseload in the past decade.

Among those cases is a Solano County John Doe.

The remains of the man, believed to by an Hispanic between 30 and 35 years old, was sent to the Human Identification Lab at California State University, Chico for a forensic anthropological exam.

“Investigators believe the unidentified man most likely lived a semi-vagrant lifestyle near the Bay Area waterways. He was wearing size 13 black Catapult athletic shoes that were worn down to their soles, and (a) pair of size 34/32 brown corduroy pants,” a Solano County Sheriff’s Office statement said.

“He may have been active in sports during childhood, as evidenced by the presence of Osgood-Schlatter disease, and overgrowth of bone on his tibia,” the Sheriff’s Office reported.

Some of those details are the result of the Chico State examination, one of 70-plus cases the lab will handle this year.

“In the last 10 years, our caseload has gone up from maybe 35 to 70 to 75 cases a year,” Bartelink, a board certified forensic anthropologist and director of the Chico State lab, said.

He said the lab works with about 35 law enforcement agencies, including virtually all of the counties in Northern California, police departments, the FBI and has even done work for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The lab was formed in 1972 by Turhon Murad – 17 years before forensic anthropologists began to get board certified. Bartelink is the president of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology.

The discipline has grown in importance and forensic anthropologists are often called in to help with large disasters such as fires, or devastating events such as a terrorist attack or a bus crash.

Bartelink brought his team, including interns and graduate students, to the 2014 bus crash that killed 10 Los Angeles-area high school students on Interstate 5 near Orland.

“It was a big team effort that has a big impact on the people in LA and to the survivors (of the crash),” Bartelink said.

While he was not personally involved, a team from his lab also worked the Valley Fire in Lake County last September. Four people died in the blaze that burned more than 76,000 acres and destroyed 1,218 homes and four multiple-housing units among the 1,955 structures lost.

Reach Todd R. Hansen at 427-6932 or [email protected].