Skeleton washed up on beach identified as mayor who vanished 20 years ago

A skeleton which washed up on a beach nearly 20 years ago has been identified as a former Oregon mayor who has been missing since 2006.

Clarence Edwin 'Ed' Asher was presumed dead after disappearing during a fishing trip at Tillamook Bay, a small inlet located on Oregon's coast.

After he vanished, the Coast Guard launched a search for him, though this was halted on 6 September 2006, just one day after the 72-year-old went missing.

Asher was the mayor of Fossil, a city located in Wheeler County, Oregon.

Authorities at the time deduced that the former lineman had drowned after his wife revealed that he didn't wear a lifejacket and that he didn't know how to swim.

Nearly two months on, skeletal remains washed up on a beach in the village of Taholah, an unincorporated village around 185 miles north of Tillamook Bay.

Asher went for a fishing trip at Tillamook Bay nearly 20 years ago, never to return (Getty Stock Image)

According to both The Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office and the Coroner’s Office, attempts to identify who the remains belonged to proved unsuccessful at the time.

The skeletal remains were listed as Grays Harbour County John Doe in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, with the case eventually becoming lost with time.

But last year, that all changed.

Forensic evidence from the case was unravelled once more, with officials submitting it to a Texas-based genetic genealogy company called Othram.

The firm is known for specialising in missing persons cases and consequently created a detailed DNA profile of the skeleton, comparing it to a sample taken from one of Asher's relatives.

Through this method, they found a link from the skeleton to the former Fossil mayor, Ed Asher, born in 1934.

Scientists used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to find this connection, with the DNA profile proving key in a genetic genealogy search, which found potential relatives.

Asher was presumed dead on 5 September 2006 (Obituary)

Asher's wife, Helen, passed away back in 2018 after being diagnosed with cancer. The couple's blended family included 21 grandchildren, in addition to 17 great-grandchildren at the time of Helen's passing, her obituary detailed.

According to Asher's obituary, he worked as a lineman for the Fossil Telephone Company over the course of nearly 50 years, while operating the Asher Variety Store.

In his spare time, he took an interest in antique cars, fishing, boating, hunting, cooking and RVing, as well as having a love for black labradors.

The local legend was also a volunteer fireman and ambulance driver, on top of his brief time as the town's mayor before his retirement in 1995.