Third set of human remains found in national forest
SKAMANIA COUNTY, Wash. (KPTV/Gray News) - A third set of human remains has been found in a national forest in Washington.
A search party found another skull in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington.
The Skamania County Sheriff’s Office believes the remains found over the weekend belong to 69-year-old John Hopkins, from Seattle.
Hopkins disappeared in Nov. 2022, and investigators were only able to find his rental car parked near the McClellan Meadows hiking trail.
In 2023, hunters found belongings believed to belong to Hopkins about one and a half miles northeast of where his car was found, but no human remains were found at the time.
On Saturday, the sheriff’s office organized a search party and a volunteer found what they believe to be Hopkin’s remains.
The sheriff’s office says the next step is to formally identify the remains with DNA testing.
The discovery comes after two other sets of human remains were found in the area in just the last few months.
A hunter found a human skull earlier this month near Sawtooth Berry Fields. And in August, a hiker reported finding a skull at the Big Lava Bed.
Investigators reported the skull discovered at Big Lava Bed belonged to a hiker who’d been missing since 2013.
The other is still unidentified.
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