A woman's remains were found in Oregon in 1976. They've been identified 49 years later thanks to DNA

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Valerie Nagle, whose DNA recently helped to confirm the remains of her sister Marion Vinetta Nagle McWhorter, who disappeared in 1974 in Oregon, poses for a portrait with a photo of her sister Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

PORTLAND, Ore. – Valerie Nagle spent decades wondering what happened to her older sister who was last seen in Oregon in 1974. She searched online databases of unidentified persons cases looking for her and sent DNA to a popular ancestry website in the hopes of finding a match.

That all changed in June when authorities in Oregon called Nagle “out of the blue” to ask about comparing her DNA to a cold case known as “Swamp Mountain Jane Doe,” she said. Nagle’s DNA ultimat