5A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2016
Remains: DNA is ‘not the magic bullet everyone thinks it is’
Continued from Page 1A
the elected attorneys balanc-
ing heavy legal caseloads with
death scene investigations,
decisions about who should
be autopsied, and searches for
next of kin.
As such, Bigelow is part of
the loosely organized nation-
wide network of family mem-
bers, cops, volunteers and
others who try, against long
odds, to match the names of
the missing with the remains
RIWKHXQLGHQWL¿HG
There is plenty of work for
them to do. According to the
National Institute for Justice ,
there are as many as 85,000
active missing persons cases
in the U.S. at any given time.
About 4,000 new unidenti-
¿HGUHPDLQVDUHIRXQGHYHU\
year, and about 1,000 of those
KDYHQRWEHHQLGHQWL¿HGDIWHU
a year. E xperts believe there
are at least 40,000 known
XQLGHQWL¿HG KXPDQ UHPDLQV
in the U.S. NIJ Journal edi-
tor Nancy Ritter has called
the situation “a silent mass
disaster” — a crisis with
casualties that accumulate
continuously.
Recognizing the need for
a centralized source of infor-
mation about missing per-
VRQV DQG XQLGHQWL¿HG DQG
unclaimed remains, the insti-
tute created the National
0LVVLQJDQG8QLGHQWL¿HG3HU
sons System, or “NamUs”
database in 2007.
NamUs lists 565 miss-
ing people in Washington
alone, stretching all the way
back to spring 1951, when
20-year-old Alvin Matlock
disappeared from his home
on Brown’s Mountain in east-
ern Washington. The real
numbers are probably higher
— some disappearances are
never even reported to police,
much less entered into the
national database .
Bones on river banks
The source of so much life,
the Columbia River’s deep
waters and swift currents are
also implicated in a lot of
deaths. According to an ongo-
ing Oregonian analysis, at
least 36 people have drowned
in the Columbia since August
2006.
The river also inevita-
bly tempts individuals faced
with the pressing dilemma of
where to dispose of a body.
In September 2006, a cou-
SOH IRXQG D ODUJH EDJ ÀRDW
LQJLQWKHULYHUQHDU3RUWODQG
It contained the dismembered
remains of Doug Adamson,
52. In August 2012, Grant
County, Washington, deputies
recovered 75-year-old Toshio
Ota, a missing Seattle man.
He was the victim of a homi-
cide by blunt-force trauma. In
January 2015, boaters discov-
ered the body of Jessica New-
ton, 40, on Bachelor Island
QHDU5LGJH¿HOG6KHWRRKDG
died a violent death.
Bigelow knows all about
the misfortune that can wash
in with the tide. In 1998 —
well before he was elected —
a local found a dead woman
on a small island in the river.
To his regret, no one has ever
been able to identify her.
“I am going to keep it
until I can hand ( the remains)
to her next of kin and they
can give them a respectful
burial. There’s someone out
there who’s missing that per-
son … ,” Bigelow said, but
he acknowledged that he has
exhausted all of his ideas for
¿QGLQJKHULGHQWLW\
“I can’t think of a single
thing I can do to contribute to
that investigation,” he said.
In 2013, a beachcomber
discovered an accumula-
tion of bones strewn along
the riverbank. Some of
them appeared to be human,
including a partial skull with
the upper row of teeth still
intact.
Bigelow sent the bones
to Washington State Foren-
sic Anthropologist Dr. Kathy
Taylor, who determined
which were human, and sent
them on to the forensic labo-
ratory at University of North
Texas. Experts there extracted
DNA from the bones, and
entered the results into the
FBI’s Combined DNA Index
System, a database of DNA
records.
Nearly two years after the
discovery, Bigelow and Tay-
lor had an answer: The bones
belonged to 44-year-old
Molly Newton-Waddington,
a beloved but troubled Kelso
mother and wife who was last
seen in Kelso on March 14,
2012. Kelso police continue
to investigate Waddington’s
death, which they consider
suspicious.
‘That was when I
realized the heartbreak’
Coroner duties consti-
tute a relatively small part
of Bigelow’s workload, but
he takes them seriously. By
carefully examining the lat-
est remains, he found a few
clues: The man spent at least
a little time in western Wash-
ington, died after spring
THE DAILY
ASTORIAN
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6
Missing persons statistics
Since it was founded in 2007, more than 26,000 documented
missing persons cases had been entered into the National
Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) as of April,
2016, and more than 10,500 cases had been resolved.
Around 13,300 unidentified persons cases were entered
during the same period, and just 2,150 cases had been resolved.
Number of unsolved disappearances in Pacific County.
Number of unidentified remains cases in Washington.
Men went missing in Washington during the time
when the Pillar Rock man likely died (roughly two
years beginning in spring, 2013, according to NCIC).
Number of unsolved disappearances in Washington.
Year of the oldest unsolved disappearance
in Washington.
Estimated number of missing persons
cases in U.S. at any given time:
When investigators ran
:DGGLQJWRQ¶V '1$ SUR¿OH
through the FBI’s Combined
DNA Index System , it quickly
found her identity, but such
clear-cut results are fairly
rare.
“Sometimes, you can come
pretty close to knowing,”
Bigelow explained. “Other
times, depending on the qual-
ity of the dental records or
the remains, all you can do is
say, ‘I can’t exclude this per-
son .’” After that, it was down
WR%LJHORZWR¿JXUHRXWZKLFK
of the many missing men he
could cross off of his list.
Hours upon hours of reading,
dialing, researching, and wait-
ing, waiting, waiting on return
calls, police reports, search
results.
“There’s a lot of detec-
tive work, even when there
are other potential matches,”
Bigelow said.
All over the country, other
investigators are trying to do
the same thing.
“I got a call from a guy
LQ 3KRHQL[ ² D GHWHFWLYH
— about a guy who appar-
ently disappeared from in
front of a Circle K, leaving
an 18-month-old baby in the
FDU´%LJHORZVDLG7KH3LOODU
Rock man’s records looked
like a possible match, but the
timeline was all wrong.
“The baby is now old
enough to drink. It couldn’t
possibly be the same guy.”
examine bones, or photos of
bones found around the state.
“A lot of what I’m doing is
evaluating a bone and asking,
‘Is this human?’ Because there
are bones everywhere,” Tay-
lor said. In addition to using
the databases, she works with
police, the media, and other
experts, including a forensic
artist. She also spends a lot of
time talking with the families
of the missing, encouraging
them to do their part to keep
investigations active.
“We really try to explore
every avenue,” Taylor said.
“If you know of somebody
that’s missing, you have to
report them, and you have to
be vigilant to make sure that
somebody is getting them into
the system.”
‘Everybody should
get a name’
Taylor cautions that DNA
testing is “not the magic bullet
85,000
everyone thinks it is.” Frus-
tratingly, sometimes there’s
Sources: National Institute of Justice;
Estimated number of known
just not enough to work with,
National Crime Information Center;
human remains in U.S. that
especially with old, weath-
National Missing and unidentified
have still not been identified:
Persons System
ered remains.
Natalie St. John and Alan Kenaga/
“What we have to do then
40,000
EO Media Group
is put it on the shelf and wait
for the technology to get bet-
ter, and then you resubmit it,”
2013, and had probably been for a middle-class person’s
Taylor said. “You never give
dead for about two years. He disappearance to draw so lit-
up.”
was probably middle-class, tle attention.
It’s too soon to say whether
and middle-aged. He prob-
“This guy seems like the
this man’s bones will provide
ably died elsewhere, and kind of guy that people would
usable DNA, or other clues to
his body then traveled up or be looking for,” Bigelow said.
his identity. Without a name,
down the river with the cur- “He had Vibram-soled shoes
investigators are unlikely to
rents and tides.
— those things are like $20 a
HYHU ¿JXUH RXW KRZ KH GLHG
Bones, everywhere
Bigelow sent a detailed toe. It’s odd.”
Bigelow again called on Sometimes though, fami-
press release to media outlets
Getting to ‘maybe’
Taylor, the forensic anthro- lies do get answers against
and asked the public for tips,
With small staffs and little pologist, for help. In her lab, all odds. Taylor and her col-
just as he had done in 2013.
“With Molly Wadding- technology at their disposal, Taylor will remove the man’s laborators recently solved a
ton,” Bigelow recalled, “all rural coroners research cold remaining fatty tissue, then seemingly hopeless cold case
we had was a skull. We didn’t cases on evenings and week- examine and preserve the IURP :KHQ VKH ¿QDOO\
know height, weight, gender, ends, or whenever they can bones. Just as with Wadding- met the victim’s sister, Tay-
practically nothing. When borrow a few minutes from ton, she will send samples ORU¶V¿UVWZRUGVZHUH³,KDYH
been waiting 20 years to talk
I asked for assistance, the the reams of appeals, briefs away for DNA testing.
A Washington native who to you!”
world called me. Everybody and dense county reports that
“Every one of these people
who was missing anybody. continuously pile up. And earned her doctorate at the
That was when I realized they seek help wherever they University of Arizona, Taylor that are in my care have fam-
has worked out of the King ilies and are loved by some-
the heartbreak — how many FDQ¿QGLW
Bigelow took the man’s County Medical Examiner’s body. It’s excruciating not to
people had people missing.”
Bigelow began to feel guilty teeth to a dentist, who cre- RI¿FH VLQFH 7KRXJK EHDEOHWR¿JXUHRXWZKRWKH\
about “giving so many people ated records and turned them LW¶VDUHODWLYHO\QHZ¿HOGWKH are. You know that they are
over to the Washington State demand for her unique ser- being missed. You just don’t
hope of closure.”
know by whom,” Taylor said.
“They have some particu- 3DWURO 6WDWH SDWURO LQ WXUQ vices is growing.
“Let’s just say I do not lack “You want to return them to
lar person deeply at heart, and entered them into the National
they’re just scanning all the Crime Information Center , an for work — I am very busy!” their families. Everybody
should get a name. They came
time, looking, and when they FBI database. The database Taylor said .
Taylor sometimes responds into this world with a name.
see one of these things, they FRPSDUHG WKH 3LOODU 5RFN
pick up the phone and call,” man’s tooth charts to records to scenes when bodies turn up. They should leave it with a
going back to the 1980s, and 3HRSOHUHJXODUO\FDOORQKHUWR name.”
Bigelow said.
This time, he was able spit out a list of 141 men who
to provide more detail in his had gone missing in Wash-
ington during the time period
release.
“As a result, I got very few when he likely died. NamUs,
FDOOV ´ %LJHORZ VDLG 3HRSOH other databases, and tipsters
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
DUH RIWHQ VORZ WR ¿OH UHSRUWV added still more names to
ever-expanding
about people who have tran- Bigelow’s
N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A
sient lifestyles, but it’s rare list.
Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500
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