Identified! OR - Umatilla Co., Male skeletal near Harris Park, Jul'14 - Byron Fusselman

Human remains were found scattered over a 50-yard radius near a logging operation in Umatilla County, the sheriff’s office confirmed. The discovery was made, officials said, on Monday around 12:30 p.m. near Lincton Mountain Road, near Highway 204...

Tuesday, a forensic scientist from the Oregon State Police Crime lab confirmed the skeletal remains were a male.

A more extensive search later found more remains that were recovered and collected. Officials have not said if they believe the remains are that of more than one person or a single individual.

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Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan reported a logging company found the remains Monday afternoon off Lincton Mountain Road near Highway 204 above Harris Park...

Harris Park is a Umatilla County owned and operated recreation site in the Blue Mountains about 14 miles southeast of Milton-Freewater. The area was subject to a search in early November 2005 for Byron Fusselman, 19, of Milton-Freewater. His Jeep Cherokee was in the Harris Park parking lot, but he was not.

The weather was freezing and Fusselman was not dressed for cold temperatures, according to East Oregonian news stories.

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EmmaliLucia said:

Where was that one kid's truck found? The one that went missing last year after reading "Into the Wild?"

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Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan said a forensic odontologist planned to look at the remains Thursday at the state medical examiner in Portland, but that has not yet happened. The odontologist also works in a private dental practice, Rowan said, and the medical examiner's office also had a body come in.

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Remains recently found off Lincton Mountain Road have been identified as belonging to Byron Fusselman of Milton-Freewater, who went missing in the mountains outside town in early November 2005, officials said.

In a news release, the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office said a forensic odontologist with the State Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the identity. The State Medical Examiner’s Office has not submitted a final report.

"At this time we we do not have a cause or manner of death, and due to the condition of the remains, may never know with any certainty," said Sheriff Terry Rowan in the release. "We will review all of the reports and determine the next course of action to take from there."

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About two months before Byron went missing — we believe he was murdered — a young man stood in my front yard in Milton-Freewater and threatened to kill my grandson in front of four witnesses. He went to Byron's home, kicked the door threatening to kill Byron. Another grandson and I went to Byron's home while my wife called 911...

When my brother-in-law and I arrived at the park, the deputy was walking around, looking. There never were any pictures taken, no fingerprints collected, no crime-scene tape displayed, and it never was secured as a crime scene...

The deputy sat in our home Nov. 10, 2005, after being told the name of the man who threatened to kill Byron, which the deputy already knew, and said, "He is not capable of doing that."

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EmmaliLucia said:

Sounds like the guy threatening to kill Byron was part of the "Good Old Boys" club in that small town. I hope that if he was murdered that the murderer is found and tried. But the bones were out in the open for almost nine years, cause of death is going to be very hard to determine. Even if there were a bullet hole or a stab mark, it could easily be misidentified as post-mortem animal marks. :/

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The young man’s disappearance sparked a four-day manhunt, employing search dogs and a Black Hawk helicopter. Reports that Byron had been hiking and not dressed for the weather were some of the details law enforcement and the media got wrong back then, Jeff Fusselman recalled during an interview Thursday at his home, adding that rumors of Byron being murdered or running away were rampant.

Yet no reporters, no detectives, no sheriff called him to confirm anything. Not even when then-Sheriff John Trumbo called off the search after five days, saying his crew couldn’t devote more time to what was likely a case of a lost hiker, Jeff said...

Like other details that didn’t sit well in his son’s case, Jeff struggles with how he learned his son’s remains were found. Calls from family members started pouring in Wednesday, but no calls came from the Sheriff’s Office or news outlets reporting the find, he said. “No one contacted me. It was déjà vu coming from eight and half years ago. It really hurts.”

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