EVERETT — The relatives of an Oregon man were given answers last month that had eluded them for 28 years.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office was able to confirm that the human remains discovered in January near Kayak Point were those of Roy T. Blair.
The U.S. Army veteran’s family last saw him in 1988. His mother tried to report Blair missing, but police declined to take a report. If it wasn’t for the discovery of his wallet, Blair likely would have joined the 13,000 across the nation that are unidentified.
Snohomish County Medical Examiner Dr. Daniel Selove announced Wednesday that his office has launched a new website to assist in identifying remains and to connect families with the unclaimed remains of loved ones.
“We know the anguish that a family feels when a loved one is missing,” Selove said in a press release. “We hope that by providing an easy-to-use online tool, we may be able to have families reunited with the remains of their missing loved ones.”
Since 2001 the medical examiner’s office handled 270 unclaimed remains cases. In those deaths, investigators have been able to identify the deceased but haven’t been able to locate any next of kin. The office has resolved 42 of those cases.
The office has 14 unidentified remains cases, dating back to 1956. There are 12 men and two women whose identities are unknown. The website details the cases and includes some digital sketches that recently were completed by a forensic artist.
The most recent case is from January 2015. The partial remains of a black man were discovered in a shed in the 17500 block of the Bothell-Everett Highway. He’d likely died in late 2012.
Police believe the man lived in the shed and went by the name of Jerry Deggs or Jerry Diggs. It’s unclear how he died.
Authorities also don’t know how Blair died. Hikers first found his skull Jan. 20 in some woods near 140th Street NW and Marine Drive.
Snohomish County’s sheriff’s major crimes detectives, investigators with the medical examiner’s office, and forensic anthropologist Dr. Kathy Taylor converged on the scene. The site was excavated, and more of Blair’s remains were found, along with his wallet and clothing.
Investigators couldn’t read his driver’s license, but his military identification was still legible. Detectives found his sister, who confirmed that Blair disappeared from Oregon in 1988. He’d left town on his motorcycle after borrowing $20 from his brother.
His sister filed a missing person’s report with police in Portland, allowing a detective there to obtain his dental records.
Forensic odontologist Dr. Gary Bell confirmed last month that the person found was Blair. There were no obvious signs of trauma, death investigator Jane Jorgensen said. It’s unclear when Blair died, or why he was in Washington.
Without that wallet, Blair probably would never have been identified, Jorgensen said.
There are approximately 125 unidentified remains cases statewide, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
The medical examiner’s new website connects people to the NamUs database. Only medical examiners may enter cases into the national database, but the public can search it by using the missing person’s name and birthdate.
“By providing closure, we may be able to answer the questions that families have been asking,” Selove said.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
On the net
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s new website dedicated to identifying the dead and connecting families with unclaimed remains is available at http://bit.ly/28RGt15. Anyone with information about these cases is asked to call 425-438-6200.
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