Skeletal remains that washed ashore on a Washington state beach nearly two decades ago have been identified as a former small-town mayor who vanished during a fishing trip and was long presumed drowned.
Clarence Edwin “Ed” Asher, a long-time Republican, disappeared in September 2006 while fishing in Tillamook Bay along the Oregon coast.
The U.S. Coast Guard conducted an extensive search but suspended operations on September 6, 2006.
The search ended just one day after he went missing, according to contemporaneous reporting by The Astorian.
Asher, the former mayor of Fossil, was 72 years old at the time.
Authorities concluded he likely drowned after investigators learned he did not wear a life jacket.
Asher did not know how to swim.
Two months later, in November 2006, skeletal remains were discovered on a beach near Taholah, approximately 185 miles north of Tillamook Bay.
However, the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office and the county coroner were unable to identify the remains at the time.
The remains were eventually entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System as Grays Harbor County John Doe.
The case went cold for years until 2025, when forensic evidence was submitted to Othram, a Texas-based genetic genealogy company specializing in cold cases.
Using advanced DNA analysis and a sample provided by a relative, the firm positively identified the remains as Asher.
Asher’s wife, Helen, died in 2018 at age 85 following a long battle with cancer.
Her obituary noted that his disappearance left “a large hole in Helen’s heart.”
It prompted her to return to Condon, where the couple had married in 1986.
Asher is survived by his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Together, he and Helen built a large blended family that included 21 grandchildren and, by the time of Helen’s death, 17 great-grandchildren.
A longtime fixture in Fossil, Asher spent decades serving his community.
He worked nearly 50 years as a lineman for the Fossil Telephone Company, operated the Asher Variety Store, volunteered as a firefighter and ambulance driver, and served a brief term as mayor before retiring in 1995, according to his obituary.
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