The son of one of three rock-and-roll legends killed in a 1959 plane crash near Clear Lake has hired a forensic anthropologist to investigate his father’s death. Jay Richardson, the son of "The Big Bopper" J.P. Richardson, is hoping he can settle the rumors about a gun that might have been on the plane that also carried Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and Clear Lake pilot Roger Peterson, and whether his father could have survived the crash and died later after trying to go for help.
The Big Bopper’s remains will be exhumed from his grave in Beaumont, Texas, with Doctor Bill Bass of the University of Tennessee studying them. Bass is an expert in determining identities and causes of death. The Big Bopper’s remains will then be returned to a new grave in Beaumont.