The white tennis shoe stood out among the pine needles of the forest floor. The lone K-Air brand shoe didn’t belong here, deep in the woods. The nearest road was nearly a half-mile away.
After looking around, the hunters who discovered the shoe found other remains, including bones and a human skull. Then, they found a shallow grave.For nearly a decade, investigators have tried to identify the human remains found near the Big Spring Snow Park.
Detectives used DNA to create a computer generated image of the victim’s face. Forensic analysis helped identify his clothing. And testing of the victim’s hair revealed he lived in Texas or Florida roughly two months before his death.Still, the man has not been identified.
“Someone has got to be looking for him. Someone is missing him,” said Dr. Nici Vance, forensic anthropologist for the Oregon State Police Medical Examiner Division.
On October 23, 2006, a Linn County sheriff's deputy responded to a report of human remains found near the Big Springs Snow Park, located roughly halfway between Salem and Bend on Highway 22.
Detectives figured the man had been dead for roughly a year, maybe longer. He’d been murdered, said police. But investigators won’t reveal how he was killed.
“Definitely, this was a dump site. Someone dumped him here,” said Detective Captain Paul Timm of the Linn County Sheriff’s office.
Based on the remains, investigators were able to come up with a basic profile. The victim was a white man between 25 and 45 years old. He stood roughly 5-foot-11.
Investigators also found remnants of the man’s clothing, dirty, brown strips of cloth. Closer examination revealed the man wore black Dungarees brand denim pants, along with a second pair of blue nylon athletic pants with black trim.
