LOS ANGELES, Dec. 17 – Skeletal remains found near the Spahn movie ranch in Chatsworth were identified Friday as those of former movie stunt man Donald “Shorty” Shea, murdered by the Charles Manson clan in 1969.

James Kono, assistant chief of the Los Angeles County coroner’s investigation division, said it appeared Shea, who acted as foreman of the ranch and who tried to have Manson evicted, had been stabbed to death.

The position of the body as it was unearthed Thursday suggested that Shea had not been decapitated, as clan members had suggested shortly after his disappearance in 1969, but Kono said it was still unknown if his head had been severed.

Identification of Shea was made through dental charts, he said.

Manson, 43, and followers Bruce Davis, 24, and Steve Grogan were convicted of Shea’s murder in separate 1971 and ’72 trials even though the body could not be found.