Skeletal remains discovered on a Washington beach in November 2006, initially known as "Grays Harbor County John Doe," have been identified as Edwin Asher, the former mayor of Fossil, Oregon. Asher disappeared on September 5, 2006, while crabbing in Tillamook Bay, Oregon, and was presumed to have drowned. He was legally declared dead in the same year he vanished. The remains washed ashore in Taholah, Washington, approximately 124 miles north of where Asher was last seen.
Initial investigations estimated the man to be between 20 and 60 years old, 5 feet 9 inches tall, and weighing 170-180 pounds, but he remained unidentified for nearly two decades. In the past year, the Grays Harbor Coroner’s Office and the King County medical examiner partnered with Othram, a forensic genetic genealogy laboratory, to identify the remains. Through genome sequencing and genetic genealogy searches, investigators identified potential relatives, and a comparison with a reference DNA sample from a relative led to the positive identification of Edwin Asher, who was 72 at the time of his death. Asher, originally from Salem and raised in Astoria, had a career as a lineman technician and owned a variety store in Fossil, where he also served as mayor and volunteered as a fireman and ambulance driver.