DNA BREAKTHROUGH

Human Remains Washed Up on Beach Identified by DNA Decades On

The same technology has helped catch serial killers decades on.

A 20-year mystery has been solved using the same technology that helped catch the Golden State Killer. Human remains that washed up in Grays Harbor County, Washington, decades ago have been identified as those of a man who vanished on a crabbing trip 100 miles away in 2006. Clarence Edwin Asher, known as Ed, was a 72-year-old former mayor of Fossil, Oregon, who went missing from his boat in Tillamook Bay, Oregon, on Sept. 6, 2006. His widow told authorities he could not swim. Two months later human remains washed up 100 miles to the north and were listed as “Jane Doe,” with their identity remaining unconnected to Asher’s disappearance. But in 2025, the Jane Doe case was reopened. With the help of advancements in forensic genetic genealogy, scientists were able to confirm that the remains belonged to Asher after evidence was sent to a laboratory in Texas, where a comprehensive DNA profile was generated and connected the DNA samples to potential relatives, ultimately resulting in the identification of the remains. “People should know that it doesn’t matter how old a case is, or whether it seemed hopeless in the past, there is technology that is here today that works, and it can bring answers to a lot of families,” Kristen Mittelman, chief development officer for Othram—a corporation specializing in forensic genetic genealogy, to which evidence from the case was submitted—told Newsweek.

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