Skeletal remains found on Washington beach identified as former Oregon mayor who vanished in 2006
CBS News • • nation
Key Points:
- The remains of Edwin Asher, a former Oregon mayor who disappeared in 2006, have been identified two decades later through DNA testing and investigative genetic genealogy by the forensics laboratory Othram.
- Asher was declared dead in 2006 after authorities presumed he drowned while crabbing in Tillamook Bay, Oregon, following his disappearance during a fishing trip.
- Skeletal remains found in November 2006 on a beach in Grays Harbor County, Washington, were initially unidentified and labeled "Grays Harbor County John Doe (2006)."
- The case was reopened in 2025, and collaboration between investigators and Othram led to the confirmation that the remains belonged to Asher.
- At the time
