Human remains discovered on a beach along Washington State’s central coastline nearly two decades ago have been identified as those of a former Oregon mayor who went missing while crabbing in 2006.
According to TMZ, Clarence Edwin “Ed” Asher was 72 when he disappeared in Tillamook Bay, Oregon, on September 5, 2006.
He was later presumed to have drowned and was legally declared dead.
Nearly two months after his disappearance, in November 2006, human remains were found on a beach in Taholah, an unincorporated village on the Quinault Indian Reservation along the Washington coast.
Despite extensive investigations by the Grays Harbour County Sheriff’s Office and the county coroner, the remains could not be identified and the case was classified as Grays Harbor County John Doe.
The case remained unsolved for years until 2025, when the Grays Harbor County Coroner’s Office and the King County Medical Examiner sent forensic evidence to a Texas-based laboratory.
Scientists were able to extract DNA and develop a genetic profile, leading to a positive identification through forensic genealogy.
The breakthrough was made through a collaborative effort involving the Grays Harbor County Coroner’s Office, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, and Othram, a Texas-based forensic DNA company.
Asher’s case marks the 43rd identification Othram has helped solve in Washington State.
Asher had moved to Fossil, Oregon, in 1952, where he worked as a lineman for the Fossil Telephone Company until his retirement in 1995.
In 1965, he opened Asher’s Variety Store and later served as the town’s mayor.
His wife, Helen Asher, died in 2018 at the age of 85 after a prolonged battle with cancer. According to her obituary, Ed Asher’s sudden disappearance and presumed death left “a large hole in Helen’s heart,” prompting her to return to Condon, Oregon, where the couple married in 1986.
Asher was 72 years old at the time of his death.