UNSOLVED WA - Skagit Co, near Finney Creek, Adult Femur, Feb'08

HollywoodBound

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SKAGIT COUNTY, Wash. -- A 9-year-old boy found part of a human thigh bone while hiking with his mother in the Finney Creek area of Skagit County, police said.The Concrete woman and her son were about 15 miles east of Sedro Woolley off the South Skagit Highway when the boy found a partial bone that was about 12 inches long buried in some sand near Finney Creek on Feb. 4.The mother, who is an archeologist, recognized the bone as likely human and called the Skagit County Sheriff's Office.Ten days later, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the bone was human and likely part of an adult’s femur.
The rest of the article is at:
http://www.kirotv.com/news/15414926/detail.html
 
Talk about a "chip off the old block"! What are the chances of a child finding a human bone and the even more remote chance his mother would be an archeologist?! WTG!

I hope they will be able to figure out this puzzle now and bring someone home. It seems the child was in the right place at the right time to find her.
 
Talk about a "chip off the old block"! What are the chances of a child finding a human bone and the even more remote chance his mother would be an archeologist?! WTG!

I hope they will be able to figure out this puzzle now and bring someone home. It seems the child was in the right place at the right time to find her.

Yes, when I first read it and saw the mother was an archaeologist I said wow. I bet if I found a bone while hiking I might assume it was a deer leg bone or something and keep going. They were definitely in the right place at the right time.

I wonder how far this area is to the nearest road or building. They said no other bones were recovered and they didn't say but I am guessing no set of car keys (or anything else a person might carry) were found. The rest of the remains must have been scattered pretty far over the last 2+ years.
 
I just did some searching to try and figure out who this could be. I used the search box on charleyproject.org putting Skagit County in and there was one result which is someone missing from '96 so she is probably not this unidentified: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hunter_mary.html

I then got on wikipedia and got a list of all nearby counties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skagit_County#Adjacent_counties

I then searched charleyproject again entering each adjacent county in the search box.

Whatcom County had 4 results:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/roberts_leah.html Missing from '00 Leah has metal rod inside the entire length of one of her femurs.
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/j/joyce_marcia.html missing from '78
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/reeves_diane.html missing from '89
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/roof_christina.html '96

Okanogan County
None

Chelan County
None

Snohomish County
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/starosky_james.html missing from '04
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/wright_shelby.html missing from '04
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/miller_jeanette.html missing from '70
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/schubert_juliana.html missing from '89
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/lewis_reuben.html '91
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hagen_titanic.html '79
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/brazzel_tracey.html 95
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/bello-medina_judith.html 93
There is also a family abduction of 3 I excluded.

Island County and San Juan County both none.
 
How far is this from the Oregon state line? Whenever remains are found in this region I always think of Brooke Wilberger.
 
There have been no further updates on this case and no other bones found.

I wonder if a DNA analysis can be done on the bone even though it was outside so long? Without a DNA profile it would be almost impossible to identify just one bone. They could possibly exclude Leah Roberts though if they can determine if it is a right or left femur since one of her femurs has a metal rod.
 
Great work, Hollywood! The bones could have been scattered by animals and the crime scene could be in another location. I am sure they will scour the area for more clues.
 
wondering about Joe Pichler.
I looked on Google maps and the bone was found over 100 miles from where Joe Pichler's car was found. There are so many questions with his disappearance though.

There still have been no more bones found. Maybe the creek pushed this bone miles away from the rest of the remains. I wonder what this area is like, is it far from civilization meaning it could be a lost hiker?
 
:) Just bumping, and giving credit to Hollywood for this find. I posted it in the Joe Pichler forum if that is OK.:clap:
 
I don't know if they can get DNA out of the bone itself - like if it's ground up a bit. Normally I think they take the DNA from the bone marrow. There's been a big debate on the Princess Blue thread(s) about how long bones can bear viable DNA after being left in outside in the elements. If the bone was partially buried or covered in some way, I'd say it has a better chance of having DNA than if it was out in the open under the full sun and precipitation. JMO.
 
I don't know if they can get DNA out of the bone itself - like if it's ground up a bit. Normally I think they take the DNA from the bone marrow. There's been a big debate on the Princess Blue thread(s) about how long bones can bear viable DNA after being left in outside in the elements. If the bone was partially buried or covered in some way, I'd say it has a better chance of having DNA than if it was out in the open under the full sun and precipitation. JMO.

Thanks. I think I also remember hearing when they find remains and they have teeth they can extract DNA from the root of the tooth. It really sounds like they have given up on looking for more remains in this case though. I hope they can somehow get a DNA sample from the bone they do have.
 
Can they tell if the victim was male or female from the structure of the bone?
 
Over a year later. Wondering if there was ever any more info about this? The original article still works...but I couldn't find anything new. I know there are some better Googlers than myself out there. So I thought I'd check.
 
I emailed the newspaper to see if they had ever received additional info.
 
Roger Lenard Jung

Avid hiker missing since 2005, lived about 40-45 mi away in Everett WA


http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/j/jung_roger.html



Of course, 2 big questions:

1) Can they still get DNA from the bone?
2) His Jeep was never located...? Hard to explain if he went hiking 45 min away.



Comments/thoughts welcome.
 
I think malaika was just wondering if it COULD be Robert.

Definitely possible. We have very little information except "adult femur". So it's hard to rule anything out.
 

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