Overview
- The Grays Harbor County Coroner’s Office, working with the King County Medical Examiner and Othram, confirmed the remains are those of Clarence Edwin “Ed” Asher, born in 1934.
- Asher disappeared during a crabbing trip in Tillamook Bay on September 5, 2006, and the Coast Guard ended its search the following day.
- The remains were discovered in November 2006 near Taholah on the Quinault Indian Reservation, roughly 185 miles north of Tillamook Bay.
- The case was listed in NamUs as UP139985 until 2025, when Othram’s advanced sequencing produced a DNA profile that led investigators to Asher’s relatives.
- The identification updates a long-running John Doe case without altering earlier conclusions that Asher likely drowned in 2006.