{"id":25273,"date":"2026-04-08T09:36:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T17:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=25273"},"modified":"2026-04-14T09:39:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:39:52","slug":"remains-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/remains-identified\/","title":{"rendered":"Remains identified"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
A photo of the last known picture of Mark Smith at his sister\u2019s wedding. | Photo from @fox12oregon and @vinceybarratv on Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 8, 2026 | Abbi Duhart | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Remains found in Josephine County in 1978 were recently identified nearly 50 years later by the Oregon State Medical Examiners Office as Mark Smith, who had been missing since 1974.<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith left his home in Billings, Montana in October of 1974 to travel at the age of 19 and was never heard from again. The final, most recent photograph that was taken of him was at his sister\u2019s wedding in 1973, a year before he went missing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Remains were discovered in southern Oregon near Holcomb Peak \u2014 about 90 minutes from the California border \u2014 May 9, 1978, four years after the disappearance. A logging crew in the area discovered partial skeleton remains, including a skull and a fragment of a scapula, along with partial pieces of a shirt and brown sweater. Technology at the time made these remains unidentifiable and the case went cold.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time, the Josephine County Sheriff\u2019s Office conducted an investigation on the case and forensic analysts incorrectly concluded that the remains potentially belonged to a teenage girl who wasn\u2019t identifiable due to a lack of DNA technology.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2020, DNA from the skeletal remains was sent to the University of North Texas and tested again. It was confirmed that the person was male, but a DNA comparison still led to no matches, leaving the remains unidentifiable. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children also volunteered to have a forensic artist do a facial reconstruction based on the skull remains, but this proved unsuccessful in generating a match for a missing person.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2025, DNA Labs International and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children worked on a recently uploaded DNA profile that brought a possible family connection of several siblings, including one who went missing in the \u201870s. Police contacted the siblings, who confirmed that their brother, Mark Smith, had gone missing October 4, 1974. Swab samples were taken from the siblings which matched the DNA from the remains, leading to the correct identification of Smith in late February.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is currently no evidence of foul play, but Oregon police say that the investigation remains open.<\/span><\/p>\n

Forensic anthropologist Hailey Collord-Stalder added, \u201cThis identification reflects years of persistence, scientific collaboration, and the evolving power of forensic genetic genealogy.\u201d She further emphasized that they are grateful Mark is finally returned to his family.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 8, 2026 | Abbi Duhart | News Editor Remains found in Josephine County in 1978 were recently identified nearly 50 years later by the Oregon State Medical Examiners Office as Mark Smith, who had been missing since 1974. Smith left his home in Billings, Montana in October of 1974 to travel at the age […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1645,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Remains identified","_seopress_titles_desc":"Southern Oregon remains from 50 years ago identified as missing person","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9702,9700,6191,6387,9698,7644,9704,9697,7582,9201,7577,6299,7081,9699,6836,3195,9695,9701,9694,9306,9696,9693,9703,684,39],"class_list":["post-25273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-anthropology","tag-billings","tag-case","tag-dna","tag-examiner","tag-forensic","tag-holcomb-peak","tag-identified","tag-investigation","tag-labs","tag-law","tag-medical","tag-missing","tag-montana","tag-oregon-2","tag-police","tag-remains","tag-sheriff","tag-skeletal","tag-skeleton","tag-skull","tag-southern-oregon","tag-swab","tag-western","tag-wou"],"modified_by":"saragerrick","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25279,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25273\/revisions\/25279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}