The Unidentifieds Episode 6: Four Oregon cold cases solved, families get closure
What would you do if someone you loved vanished and was never heard from again? That was the case for several families we interviewed on the first five episodes of The Unidentifieds podcast.
In previous episodes, we explored the rapidly expanding use of genetic genealogy in finding the identities of long lost souls whose remains were found in Oregon.
We told the stories of a nomadic Navy veteran, a young woman who liked to sing, a girl who wore a pink plaid coat and mother of pearl ring, and a little boy whose time on earth was too short.
They all vanished in Oregon. But they were all also found in Oregon. Their stories told, and their names said aloud once again, thanks to the help of passionate experts, their families and advances in DNA technology and genetic genealogy.
On the final episode of The Unidentifieds, hosts Regan Mertz and Dave Killen unpack the emotional toll on families and how getting answers about their loved ones’ fates – even if decades later – brings closure.
The investigators and scientists who worked on the cold cases reflect on how each person’s story lingers in their memory, long after the cases were solved.
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8 May 2023
The Unidentifieds Episode 5: Human remains found near Multnomah Falls in 1979 identified 4 decades later
In September 1979, two hikers discovered human remains on a rocky slope above a little-used trail near Multnomah Falls. They found bones, a skull and a few personal belongings: gold-rimmed aviator glasses, a yellow cap with black felt letters reading “NT” and a chewed-up checkbook from First National Bank of Oregon. But there was no wallet or other identifying information.
Based on the bones and hair found at the scene, investigators determined the body likely belonged to a man, between 20 and 35 years old, with a thick, curly beard. A news brief that ran in The Oregonian noted that the remains “had been exposed to the elements for quite some time.”
Police sent the skull and mandible to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., for an anthropological exam, which concluded that the person who died was likely African American.
But who did the remains belong to? Police had no leads. No one had been reported missing. For decades the bones sat in a box at the Oregon State Police medical examiner’s office in Clackamas.
Now, more than four decades after the remains were first discovered, John Doe 79-1862 has a name.
On Episode 5 of The Unidentifieds, hosts Regan Mertz and Dave Killen travel to Multnomah Falls and explore its labyrinth-like trail network. They talk to investigators assigned to the case in 1979 and to experts who explain how the cruel legacy of slavery has affected genetic genealogy efforts to connect Black families to lost relatives.
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1 May 2023
The Unidentifieds Episode 4: U.S. Forest Service workers find a skull near Government Camp
On August 2, 1986, two U.S. Forest Service workers were out collecting timber data on a remote logging road in the Mt. Hood National Forest near Government Camp when they stumbled upon a human skull, bone fragments, and a single tooth.
Investigators took photos of the scene and the remains were transported and inventoried at the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office.
The coroner estimated that the skull had been in the woods for about a decade, which meant the person had died around 1976. Investigators released those details to the public and they got dozens of leads through a tip line.
But to no avail, the case went cold. It was just another body found in Oregon’s woods unclaimed, unidentified.
On episode four of The Unidentifieds, hosts Regan Mertz and Dave Killen go back to one Oregon case that found a resolution weeks before the world shut down in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Regan and Dave take listeners to the dense woods near Government Camp to revisit the decades-old case.
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