Human remains identified as woman last seen at Tigard mall in 1974

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Forty-nine years after skeletal remains of a young woman were found in the Wolf Creek area near Swamp Mountain in Oregon, investigators have finally positively identified the body, thanks to breakthroughs in DNA evidence.

The woman was identified as Marion Vinetta Nagle McWhorter, who was last seen at a Tigard shopping mall in 1974 when she was 21 years old, Oregon State Police said.

“This case was cold for 49 years. That means that family members lived and died without ever knowing what happened to their missing loved one,” said Oregon Forensic Anthropologist Hailey Collord-Stalder in a statement. “Forensic genetic genealogy allowed us not only to assist Oregon law enforcement and medicolegal personnel in identifying a woman who likely did not go missing voluntar