TULALIP — Human bones found Sunday in Tulalip belonged to Jacob Hilkin, an Everett man who went missing two years ago, according to his family.
Officials, however, were still working to confirm the identity of the deceased.
Hilkin, 24, was reported missing Jan. 23, 2018.
“I am sharing that my sons body was found yesterday,” Hilkin’s mother Marni Pierce wrote on Facebook on Monday. “I need to allow my family sometime to heal. Jacob Hilkin I will forever hold you in my heart. You will never be forgotten. I love you more than you will ever know.”
The death did not appear suspicious, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday.
The sheriff’s office noted the remains “may be a missing man who disappeared from that area in 2018.” However, as of Tuesday, the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office had not confirmed the bones came from Hilkin, and it could take days or weeks to make an official determination.
The cause of death hasn’t been confirmed, either.
A resident, who was building a motorcycle path in the woods, found the bones around 4 p.m. Sunday in the 7900 block of 31st Avenue NE on the Tulalip Reservation, less than a mile from where Hilkin was last seen.
Hilkin went to the Quil Ceda Creek Casino with friends late Jan. 22, 2018. The next morning a Tulalip police officer ran across him around 10:20 a.m., in no apparent distress at a homeless camp along 27th Avenue NE. Hilkin showed his ID and told the officer he’d catch a bus to his mother’s house.
He never made it there.
Hilkin always wore his rectangular-framed eyeglasses. His childhood room was once a collage of his interests, with stickers of skateboarding, Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain and music festivals he attended dotting the plaster.
His story was featured twice on a popular podcast, “The Vanished,” bringing some national attention to the case.
Hilkin’s mother did not return a reporter’s phone message Tuesday, and his father declined to talk.
Over the past two years, Pierce has continued to post pleas for help on a Facebook page, “Find Jacob Hilkin.” She was sure someone had answers. She also spoke with local media several times, to keep a spotlight on her son’s unsolved case.
“I just want to bring my son’s body home,” Pierce said last January.
Reporter Caleb Hutton contributed to this story.
Julia-Grace Sanders: 425-339-3439; jgsanders@heraldnet.com.
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