The Clark County (Washington) Medical Examiner’s Office used forensic genealogy to confirm the identity of a man whose body was discovered 24 years ago in the Columbia River. This is the second cold case in four months that the office has closed using forensic genealogy.
The Medical Examiner’s Office recently identified Michael E. Johnson as the unidentified person found on Oct. 26,1998 in the Columbia River in Vancouver. The Medical Examiner’s Office estimates Johnson was about 53 years old at the time of his death.
The Medical Examiner’s Office submitted a DNA sample from the remains to Bode Technology, a forensic DNA laboratory in Virginia that provides forensic genealogy services and specializes in the extraction of DNA from challenging human remains samples. The forensic genealogist used the DNA from the remains to predict the unidentified person’s ancestry and compared it to individuals in online genealogy databases that allow searches of unidentified persons. The forensic genealogist found an ancestral link to a family from California. While there were multiple possibilities, the forensic genealogist noted that one person, a son of Chesley Johnson Jr. and Ruth Marie Hansen, appeared to have no traceable activities since 1998.
In October, Medical Examiner’s Office operations manager Nikki Costa contacted other children of the couple. Russel Johnson and Kathy Bergen indicated their brother, Michael E. Johnson, had left California over 20 years ago and had no contact with family.
Based on the results of the forensic genealogical analysis, DNA analysis and circumstantial evidence in the case, Clark County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Martha Burt concluded that the previously unidentified man was Michael E. Johnson.
Johnson’s cause of death is a gunshot wound to the head and his manner of death is undetermined.