The Oregon State Police wants to highlight this unidentified person case from 1970 in hopes that it might trigger someone’s memory.
UNIDENTIFIED: Black/African American Female, Columbia County, Oregon
FOUND: February 23, 1970
NAMUS #9006
State Medical Examiner Case #70-223
Primary Agency: Columbia County Sheriff’s Office
On February 21, 1970, the partially skeletonized remains of a black female were discovered on Sauvie Island near the end of Oak Island Road in Columbia County, Oregon. A short, curly, black in color, “afro” style wig was found near the body. This young woman was in her late teens or early 20s in age at the time of their death. An autopsy was performed in 1970 and the death was ruled suspicious, but the cause and manner of death remained “undetermined”. Additional dental coding was completed, and in 2010 traditional DNA typing was performed on a sample from the remains and uploaded into the national CODIS DNA database to find investigative leads. The DNA profile has not “hit” on any missing person case up to this point.
In 2021, a DNA sample from this individual was submitted to Parabon® Nanolabs for Snapshot® DNA Analysis. The results of this genetic analysis provided a prediction of this young woman’s physical appearance. Based on these results, this female individual had brown or dark brown skin, brown or hazel eyes, black hair, and was of African Admixed ancestry. Please see the composite images for details of what this individual likely looked like as the default composite image age of 25 years old. We would like the public to review these details and the composite images to see if you recognize this individual as anyone you may have known in the 1960s. Upon discovery of the remains, this individual had been deceased for several months to about 2 years, so she may have been alive up to 1969.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System - NamUs is a nationwide information clearinghouse offering free, secure, easy-to-use, online technology to help expedite case associations and resolutions with unidentified decedents and missing persons cases. NamUs brings people, information, forensic science, and technology together and helps to resolve missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases nationwide.
This individual has been entered into the NamUs System (NamUs@usdoj.gov) under Unidentified Person (UP) #9006. Feel free to head to the website and view her profile for additional information, search for possible matches, or even enter a missing person profile if you are a friend or family member of someone who is currently missing.
Does this unidentified woman sound like someone you’re familiar with? Do you remember a story about a young African American woman disappearing in the late 1960s around the Portland, Oregon area? Do you remember the name of that young woman? This is one of the oldest unidentified cases in Oregon. Can you help us resolve this mystery?
We do have a complete DNA profile on this individual, so identification could be obtained through comparison to a familial DNA reference sample. If you have information concerning this unidentified individual, please contact Oregon State Police Dispatch at 800-442-0776.
The Oregon State Medical examiner’s office is currently the custodian of 127 individual sets of remains that have yet to be identified. Their office diligently works with local City and County Law Enforcement agencies to help identify the unidentified and bring closure to the families.
Hope is why we are here.
