Skeletal remains found on Washington beach identified as former Oregon mayor who vanished in 2006

The remains of a former Oregon mayor have been identified two decades after his disappearance, according to the forensics laboratory that helped confirm the ID.

Edwin Asher was declared dead in 2006, when authorities presumed he drowned while crabbing in Tillamook Bay along the Oregon coast, said the laboratory, Othram, which worked on his case. Separately, in November 2006, the skeletal remains of an unidentified person were discovered on a beach on the Quinault reservation in Grays Harbor County, Washington. 

At the time, the Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office and the Grays Harbor County Coroner’s Office launched an investigation, determining that the remains belonged to an adult man between 20 and 60 years old, who stood at about 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed between 170 and 180 pounds, according to Othram. But they could not identify the person beyond that, and he became known as “Grays Harbor County John Doe (2006).”

Investigators partnered with Othram when they revisited the case in 2025. Scientists at the laboratory conducted DNA tests and used investigative genetic genealogy — a technique that aims to solve cold cases through relatives of the individual whose DNA is being tested — to eventually confirm Asher’s identity. 

Asher was originally reported missing by his wife in September 2006, after he failed to return home from his fishing trip, local newspaper The Astorian reported at the time. Coast Guard crews searched for the 72-year-old resident of Fossil, a city in central Oregon, and found his boat but no signs of him, according to the newspaper. 

Asher’s wife had told the Coast Guard that her husband did not typicaly wear a life vest while out on the bay, where his boat was found, and also could not swim. Officials suspected that Asher may have fallen overboard, The Astorian reported. 

According to Asher’s obituary, he moved to Fossil in 1952 with his first wife and at one point served as the city’s mayor. He opened a shop called Asher’s Variety Store in 1965 and also volunteered as a local fireman and ambulance driver. Asher was survived by three biological children and six stepchildren from three marriages, the obituary said.