NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
OSP to examine Finley Creek Jane Doe site
because it is a crime scene and thus
it would be illegal to disrupt it.
By DICK MASON
The Observer
A daughter who will not
give up hope
UNION COUNTY — A four-
decade-old Union County mystery
may be on the verge of being solved
or taking another unforgettable
twist.
The Oregon State Police are set,
next month, to conduct an exam-
ination and possible excavations at
a site near Finley Creek, 18 miles
north of La Grande, where the
remains of an unidentifi ed woman
were found in August 1978.
“We are planning on mid-Au-
gust or late August,” said Sgt. Sean
Belding, a member of OSP’s major
crimes division.
Belding will be joined by Calvin
Davis, director of the OSP’s crime
lab in Pendleton, and Dr. Nici
Vance, from the State Medical
Examiner’s offi ce, plus members
of the Finley Creek Jane Doe Task
Force.
Belding, Davis and Vance
recently decided to conduct the
examination and possible digs
after learning of how a pair of
cadaver dogs responded on Thurs-
day, June 23, at the Finley Creek
site. Each dog, trained to smell
human bones and brought there by
the task force, indicated they had
found buried human bones at the
same two places while operating
separately.
Belding, who accompanied the
task force on its June 23 visit, said
he was impressed with the interest
each dog showed in the two sites.
The canines, one of which is a
Suzanne Timms/Contributed Photo, File
Cadaver dog Brynn and a team of volunteers including Suzanne Timms,
seated, in August 2021 investigate the area where the Finley Creek Jane
Doe was discovered near Elgin in 1978. Timms said she believes the un-
identifi ed woman is her mother, Patricia Otto, who disappeared in 1976.
With Timms are her relatives Jennifer Harringten, center, and Wenda Parr,
left, plus Karin Anderson of Dallas, Texas, who is a member of a Reporter’s
Notebook group that is producing podcasts about the search for the iden-
tity of the Finley Creek Jane Doe.
cadaver dogs were brought to the
Finley Creek site by the task force.
They were also brought there in the
summer of 2021, when they also
indicated they detected human
bones there.
The task force members have
never dug at the Finley Creek site
German shepherd, laid down at the
same place, an indication they were
positive human bones were under-
neath the location, said Melinda
Jederberg of La Grande, a leader
of the Finely Creek Jane Doe Task
Force, which she founded in 2019.
This was the second time the
Forecast for Pendleton Area
| Go to AccuWeather.com
TODAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
Blazing sunshine
and very hot
Very hot with
sizzling sunshine
Record-breaking
temperatures
Record-breaking
temperatures
Very hot; breezy in
the p.m.
105° 68°
105° 72°
107° 66°
108° 68°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
109° 71°
105° 70°
107° 71°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
111° 72°
106° 70°
110° 73°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. Mon.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
81/60
95/62
104/69
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
102/75 Lewiston
96/63
106/71
Astoria
72/59
Pullman
Yakima 103/71
96/59
103/71
Portland
Hermiston
100/68
The Dalles 107/66
Salem
Corvallis
96/58
Monday
Normals
Records
La Grande
99/61
PRECIPITATION
John Day
101/60
Eugene
Bend
98/59
104/63
Ontario
104/73
Caldwell
Burns
101°
58°
95°
60°
109° (1928) 45° (1953)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
99/60
0.00"
0.03"
0.10"
7.48"
2.46"
5.12"
WINDS (in mph)
100/68
101/57
0.00"
0.31"
0.30"
11.13"
4.32"
8.25"
through 3 p.m. Mon.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 95/59
101/63
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
105/68
109/73
101°
62°
92°
60°
114° (1928) 42° (1897)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
95/60
Aberdeen
96/69
102/76
Tacoma
Monday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
94/65
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
109/71
Wed.
WNW 4-8
NNW 6-12
SW 4-8
W 6-12
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
99/59
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
New
5:32 a.m.
8:31 p.m.
3:10 a.m.
7:51 p.m.
First
Full
Suzanne Timms of Walla Walla,
who is assisting with the search as
a volunteer, is elated OSP investi-
gators will be examining the site
because she is certain the Finley
Creek Jane Doe is her mother, Patri-
cia “Patty” Otto, of Lewiston, Idaho,
who has been missing since Aug. 31,
1976.
“Oregon is giving resources
toward the case. It gives me hope,”
she said.
Timms fi rst suspected the Finley
Creek Jane Doe was her mother in
2021 when she saw an image created
by a forensic artist in Massachu-
setts, Anthony Redgrave, the oper-
ator of Redgrave Research Forensic
Services. Redgrave was assisting the
Finley Creek Jane Doe Task Force,
and the image he created looked
very similar to Timms’ mother.
The images were created based on
photos of the skeletal remains found
in 1978 — those bones are believed
to have been cremated by the state
after they were found, Timms said.
Other details have contributed
to Timms’ belief the Finley Creek
Jane Doe is her mother. The remains
were found with a white shirt and
red pants, which is what Patty Otto
was last seen wearing before she
disappeared in 1976.
A possible Lewiston,
Idaho, murder
Timms said she believes her
mother was murdered in Lewis-
ton by her father and then taken to
Finley Creek where he buried her in
a shallow grave.
OSP’s autopsy records for the
Finley Creek Jane Doe, however,
do not match those of Patty Otto.
Timms said she believes the
discrepancy is due to an error
OSP’s medical examiner made
while doing examinations of the
skeletal remains of two Jane Does
in his offi ce at about the same time
in 1978. She said she suspects he
assigned his reports to the wrong
remains, because his report for
the second Jane Doe matches her
mother’s autopsy photos and dental
records.
Should human bones be found at
the Finley Creek site, the state likely
will test them to determine if their
DNA indicates they are those of
Timms’ mother. Should such bones
turn out not to be those of Patty
Otto, another layer of mystery will
be added to the Finley Creek case.
Timms is striving to keep the
memory of her mother alive with
a ceremony in Lewiston, Idaho, set
for Aug. 4, which would have been
her 70th birthday. Seventy signs
with Otto’s name will be carried by
70 people for 24 minutes down main
street in Lewiston. The time will
symbolize Otto’s age, for she was
24 in 1976 when she disappeared.
Timms said she is touched by the
number of people who are volun-
teering to participate in the memo-
rial.
“It shows that my mother is not
forgotten,” she said.
New group of wolves seen in
southern Deschutes County
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
DESCHUTES COUNTY
— A new group of wolves
has taken up residence in
Central Oregon, including
parts of Deschutes and north-
ern Klamath counties.
State wildlife officials
designated an Area of
Known Wolf Activity in the
Upper Deschutes Wildlife
Management Unit, which
extends from near Bend
south to Crescent along U.S.
Highway 97 and west to the
Pacifi c Crest Trail.
The Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife
creates wolf activity areas
in locations where the same
wolves — not wolves pass-
ing through — use an area
repeatedly over time. The
designation also helps alert
livestock producers about
wolf presence.
Ranchers in the area
should consider nonlethal
measures to protect their
livestock, according to the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife, such as hiring
range riders or using fl ash-
ing lights and alarms to scare
away wolves.
ODFW also recommends
removing any carcasses or
bone piles that might attract
wolves. Other deterrents may
include guard dogs, electri-
fi ed fencing of small pastures
and fl adry.
While Oregon’s wolf
management plan does allow
for killing wolves in the event
of repeated attacks on live-
stock, this does not apply
west of highways 395, 78
and 95, where wolves remain
federally protected under the
Endangered Species Act.
That includes the Upper
Deschutes area.
The minimum known
wolf population in Oregon
based on verifi ed evidence
was at least 175 at the end
of 2021, though ODFW
acknowledges the actual
population is likely higher.
Biologists began monitor-
ing reports of a single wolf in
the area in August 2021, and
one wolf was counted during
ODFW’s annual winter
survey.
Earlier this year, tracks of
four wolves were found in the
area, though it wasn’t imme-
diately clear if they came
from a new group of wolves
or from the Indigo Pack,
which occupies territory just
to the south.
On July 4, a trail camera
in the area snapped a photo of
an adult wolf with fi ve pups,
confi rming the new group.
Depending on how many
wolves are in the group by
year’s end, it may be desig-
nated the Upper Deschutes
Pack, with a pack being
defi ned as having at least four
wolves traveling together in
winter — typically with at
least two adults and their
off spring.
ODFW says additional
surveys will be conducted to
learn more about the Upper
Deschutes wolves’ home
range.
Wolf sightings from the
public can be reported to
ODFW online at www.dfw.
state.or.us/wolves.
Last
NATIONAL EXTREMES
IN BRIEF
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 109° in Enid, Okla. Low 33° in Daniel, Wyo.
July 28
Aug 5
Aug 11
Aug 18
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Tests show young
La Grande mother’s
brain is unresponsive
LA GRANDE — The family of a La
Grande woman said Friday, July 22, that
tests have shown the sudden cardiac arrest
she suff ered has left her brain dead.
Vanessa Durfee, 26, suff ered cardiac arrest
at her residence Sunday, July 17.
“She will be fl own to Portland on (July 23)
for organ donation,” Sandra Roda, Durfee’s
aunt, said. “The GoFundMe account will now
be used for her funeral arrangements.”
Durfee’s oldest daughter found her unre-
sponsive and alerted Vanessa’s partner, Troy
Jones, who immediately called 911 for emer-
gency medical assistance. According to Roda,
Durfee was intubated and admitted July 17
to the intensive care unit at Grande Ronde
Hospital, La Grande, where she underwent
tests to determine the cause of her condition.
Durfee is survived by her partner of six
years, Troy Jones, and two daughters, ages
6 and 1. She was a graduate of Elgin High
School and was the daughter of Sharee
Henderson and Ed Durfee, of Elgin.
The family has established a GoFundMe
page to help the young family with the costs
related to her medical emergency and her
absence from home.
— EO Media Group
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