Skeletal remains found on a beach on a native reservation in Washington state in 2006 have been identified as those of Clarence Asher, a former mayor of Fossil, Oregon.
The local Grays Harbor Coroner’s Office said Tuesday it couldn’t identify the remains two decades ago, then reached out to Houston-area forensic genealogy lab Othram for help last year.
Othram created a DNA profile from samples taken from a relative, and the remains were at last identified as Asher, 72.
He was a longtime resident of Fossil, where he served as mayor from 1970 to 1978, the city told USA Today. Fossil is 170 miles southeast of Portland.
The remains were found north of Oregon on a beach in Taholah, Washington, a village on the Quinault Indian Reservation, 150 miles west of Seattle, in November 2006.
The discovery was made two months after Asher was presumed drowned 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 vessel idling with the radio on and with a crab pot still on board.
Three weeks later, a pair of pants containing Asher’s wallet washed up south of the bay, Mr. Brown said.
The successful identification of Asher was the 43rd such case Othram has helped solve in Washington, the coroner’s office said.
