Hopefully, now the family will have some closure. The skeletal remains discovered on a Washington beach have been identified as a former Oregon mayor. Former Oregon mayor Ed Asher’s skeletal remains were first discovered back in 2006, but due to the lack of technology existing at the time, authorities had no way of linking the skeletal remains to Asher. News Nation reported more on the finding of the mayor’s skeleton: Skeletal remains that washed up on a Washington beach nearly 20 years ago have finally been identified as a former Oregon mayor who was declared dead in 2006. On Tuesday, the Grays Harbor County Coroners’ Office in Washington announced that the skeletal remains, which washed up on a beach in the Washington village of Taholah in 2006, were identified as Clarence Edwin Asher, former mayor of Fossil, Oregon. When the remains first washed up, the coroner’s office said they investigated alongside the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office and determined that they belonged to an adult man “likely aged 20 to 60 years old” and standing about 5 feet 9 inches. However, despite the investigation, officials said they were unable to identify the remains at the time, and the case was labeled as “Grays Harbor County John Doe (2006).” Nearly two decades later, in 2025, officials in both Washington and Oregon submitted their evidence to a lab operated by the forensics service Othram, Inc., in Texas. Here’s a photo of Asher before he went missing: Nearly 20 years after remains were found on a Washington beach, DNA testing identifies the man as Ed Asher, a former Oregon mayor. https://t.co/6Hh3eAEO3S — Newsweek (@Newsweek) January 14, 2026 KOMO reported background details on Asher: Ed Asher, who was declared legally dead in 2006 after being presumed drowned while crabbing in Tillamook Bay, was born in Salem and raised in Astoria, Oregon. He moved to Fossil, Oregon, in 1952, where he worked as a lineman for the Fossil Telephone Company until his retirement in 1995. Asher also opened Asher’s Variety Store in 1965 and served as the mayor of Fossil. He was 72 at the time of his death. The identification of Ed Asher marks the 43rd case in Washington where officials have used Othram’s technology to identify an individual. This achievement was made possible by critical funding from Gov. Ferguson, Attorney General Nick Brown, and the Washington State Legislature.