Overview

• Authorities confirmed in June 2025 that the Linn County remains are those of Marion Vinetta Nagle McWhorter, who disappeared from a Tigard mall in 1974 at age 21.
• Investigators say a breakthrough came in April 2025 when a genetic profile appeared in the Family Tree DNA database, narrowing the family tree for genealogists.
• McWhorter’s surviving younger sister in the Seattle area provided an oral swab that supported the identification, which Oregon Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Sean Hurst finalized.
• The case leveraged preserved 1976 evidence, a SNP DNA profile produced in November 2020, and a Parabon NanoLabs DNA Snapshot after an earlier 2023 genealogy effort stalled.
• A moss hunter found the skull in 1976 near Wolf Creek by Swamp Mountain, where deputies also recovered clothing and jewelry, and the sheriff’s office is still probing how she died.