Linn County Sheriff’s detectives have learned new information regarding unidentified human remains recovered near Sweet Home in April 2020, Undersheriff Michelle Duncan said Friday morning, Oct. 15.
The remains were found near Gordon Road, east of Sweet Home. Linn County detectives, working in conjunction with the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office, have utilized a private forensic DNA service called Parabon Nanolabs to help determine more about what the unidentified female may have looked like.
Reston, Va.-based Parabon has developed a “cutting-edge forensic DNA analysis service that provides a variety of tools for solving hard cases quickly,” according to the company’s website.
It employs genetic genealogy (searching for relatives in public databases), DNA phenotyping (which predicts physical appearance and ancestry from DNA) and kinship inference (which determines the kinship between DNA samples out to six degrees of relatedness) to generate investigative leads, narrow suspect lists, and solve human remains cases “without wasting time and money chasing false leads,” according to company promotional material.
According to analysis completed by Parabon, the remains likely belong to a white adult female with light brown/blonde hair (natural hair color), fair skin, green or hazel eyes, and zero or few freckles. An updated composite sketch of the unidentified deceased woman has been developed based on this new information, and additional DNA analysis is ongoing in attempt to identify her.
The female was found wearing a purple, Apana brand, full-zip athletic jacket (size XS), a green BKE Core brand camisole with spaghetti straps, a Victoria’s Secret heather gray front-zip sports bra, a black fabric bandanna, Wrangler’s brand blue denim jeans with crystal decorations on the pockets (size 5/6 x 32) and black Steve Madden brand dress boots (size 9.5).
Linn County Detectives have received over 100 tips regarding the investigation, but thus far the identity of the female, as well as her cause and manner of death, are still undetermined, Duncan said. Anyone with information regarding the unidentified female is asked to contact Detective Colin Pyle at (541) 967-3950.