A set of remains found on a beach on a native reservation in Washington state in 2006 has been identified as those of a former mayor from Oregon.
The local Grays Harbor Coroner’s Office said Tuesday that it was unable to identify the remains at the time, but that it reached out to Houston-area forensic genealogy lab Othram for help in the case last year.
Othram created a DNA profile, and new samples were taken from a relative, and the remains were at last identified as Edwin Asher. He was a longtime resident of Fossil, Oregon, where he served as mayor from 1970 to 1978, the city told USA Today. Fossil is about 124 miles southeast of Portland.
The remains were found north of Oregon on a beach in Taholah, Washington, a village on the Quinault Indian Reservation, almost 93 miles west of Seattle, in November 2006.
The discovery was made about two months after Asher was presumed drowned on Sept. 5, 2006, while on a crabbing trip in Oregon’s Tillamook Bay.
Tillamook County Sheriff Joshua Brown told USA Today that deputies at the time responded to a missing boater report and found Asher’s boat idling with the radio on and with a crab pot still on board.
Around three weeks later, a pair of pants containing Asher’s wallet washed up south of the bay, Mr. Brown told USA Today.
The successful identification of Asher was the 43rd such case Othram has helped solve in Washington, the coroner’s office said.
