LOS ANGELES, Dec. 23 – It could be a month before Los Angeles County coroners can positively identify the bones found Dec. 15 near Simi Valley as those of Donald “Shorty” Shea, one of Charles Manson’s murder victims.

L.A. County Sheriffs Deputies are waiting for Shea’s military records to be sent from the national military records archives in St. Louis, said Sgt. Bill Gleason, chief investigator on the Shea case. Gleason was one of the officers who found the body.

“We think it’s Shea, and the Coroner’s 99 percent sure,” Gleason said. “But, like most doctors and experts, they want to be positive.”

Officials at the archives in St. Louis told Gleason it might take as long as a month to get Shea’s records out to Los Angeles. In the meantime, investigators are checking hospitals Shea had been in for records that could confirm the identification of the skeleton.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office said the remains have been “tentatively identified” as Shea, but that was based on incomplete dental records.

“It’s just a matter of being absolutely sure,” Gleason said.

If the body found near Spahn Ranch is determined to be Shea, that officially will close the books on the Shorty Shea murder, Gleason added.