Skeletal remains that washed up on a Washington beach have been identified as an Oregon mayor who vanished in 2006, ending an 18-year mystery with the help of genetic genealogy.
Edwin Asher, who previously served as mayor of Fossil, Oregon, had disappeared while crabbing in Tillamook Bay, on the northwest coast of Oregon, on Sept. 5, 2006, the Grays Harbor County Coroner and Othram, a forensic genetic genealogy lab, said in news releases this week.
He was presumed to have drowned and legally declared dead that same year, officials said.
In November 2006, skeletal remains washed ashore in Taholah, an unincorporated village on the Quinault Indian Reservation in Grays Harbor County, Washington, the coroner’s office said.
Taholah is about 124 miles north of Tillamook Bay.
The local sheriff’s office and coroner’s office responded and collected evidence.
It was determined the remains belonged to a man, estimated to be 20 to 60 years old, 5-foot-9-inches tall and weighing 170 to 180 pounds.
However, the man was never identified and became known as the “Grays Harbor County John Doe (2006).”
Last year, the Grays Harbor Coroner’s Office and King County Medical Examiner submitted forensic evidence to Othram to try and identify John Doe.
Scientists used genome sequencing to build a DNA profile for the man and used genetic genealogy search to develop “new investigative leads.”
Investigators were led to potential relatives of the man and reference DNA samples were collected from a relative and compared to John Doe.
Finally, it led to a positive identification: Grays Harbor John Doe was Clarence Edwin “Ed” Asher, born April 2, 1934.
He was 72 when he died.
Asher was born in Salem, raised in Astoria and moved to Fossil in 1952, where he was a lineman technician for the Fossil Telephone Company until he retired in 1995, according to his obituary. He also opened his own shop, Asher’s Variety Store, in 1965.
He loved antique cars, fishing and boating, the obituary said.
He had served as mayor and also volunteered as a local fireman and ambulance driver.
He was survived by his wife of over 20 years, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. News Of Philadelphia has reached out to the city of Fossil for comment.
Forensic genetic genealogy has grown in popularity in recent years and has helped solve decades-old cold cases.
