Remains found by rafters in 1989 have been identified as a man missing since 1964, Oregon police officers say

DNA testing recently identified skeletal remains found from a group of rafters in 1989, Oregon authorities said.

The remains have been identified as David West Jr., who disappeared during a flood in 1964, the Sherman County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Monday, Feb. 6.

On March 27, 1989, rafters found skeletal remains on the banks of the John Day River in Sherman County, deputies said. Some bones were “half buried” in the silt.

The remains, including a skull, have been examined by the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office, but no identification has been made, lawmakers said.

Authorities then searched the area on March 28 and April 8 this year and found small bones and teeth.

Several people told authorities they believed the remains belonged to West.

They said he disappeared after crossing the John Day River during a flood in 1964, authorities said.

West lived on a ranch near Bridge Creek and often crossed the river to feed cattle near Ashwood, which he is believed to have done on flood day.

He used a makeshift cable car he and a friend built to cross the river, MPs said.

When a friend checked on him, they saw the cable car had been washed away and his dog was lying on the river bank “injured and upset”.

Nobody saw West after the flooding, MPs said.

Investigators contacted West’s dentist about the remains, but were unable to make a “conclusive identification.”

In 2010, the coroner’s office sent a bone sample to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification.

A DNA sample was taken and a profile added to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a DNA database operated by the FBI. But a genetic association has not been established, lawmakers said.

The coroner’s office then sent another sample to Othram, a private DNA lab, in April 2022, lawmakers said.

The lab used a genome sequencing technique and named two of West’s relatives.

Investigators then reached out to another family member for a DNA sample.

They were able to confirm that the remains belonged to West in September 2022.

“We are very pleased that such an old case could be solved. This was a case that has been a mystery for generations here in the Sherman County Sheriff’s Office. I’m glad the family of the deceased is finally closed,” Sheriff Brad Lohrey said in the press release.

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