Cold Case Solved: 2006 WA Remains Were Former OR Mayor

Skeletal human remains found on a Washington beach in 2006 have finally been identified as a former mayor in Oregon.

Clarence Edwin Asher was declared dead in 2006, when authorities presumed he drowned while crabbing on September 5th.

In November, 2006, the remains of a male were found on a beach in Taholah, on the Quinault Indian Reservation.

Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office and the Grays Harbor Coroners Office responded and began collecting evidence and investigating. They determined the remains were an adult man, likely aged 20 to 60 years old or older. The man was about 5' 9" tall and weighed an estimated 170 to 180 lbs.

After a Long Investigation, the Man Could NOT be Identified.

The unidentified male became known as Gray's Harbor County John Doe (2006). Details of the unsolved case were entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

In 2025 a Comprehensive DNA Profile Was Created for the Unidentified Man.

A genealogy team was able to was able to use profile to in a search to develop new leads for law enforcement. Using the new information, investigators were led to potential relatives of the John Doe. Reference DNA samples taken from a relative were compared to the unidentified man.

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 The Remains Were Identified as Clarence Edwin "Ed" Asher, Born April 2, 1934.

Ed Asher was declared legally dead in 2006 after he was presumed to have drowned while crabbing in Tillamook Bay on Sept. 5, 2006. Born in Salem on April 2, 1934, Ed was raised in Astoria and moved to Fossil, Oregon in 1952 where he was a lineman for the Fossil Telephone Company, until retiring in 1995. He also opened the Asher's Variety Store in 1965. He was also a past mayor of Fossil, Oregon. He was 72 when he died.

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