A Skamania County Sheriff’s Office search-and-rescue team on Saturday recovered what may be the remains of a hiker missing for nearly two years.
The human remains are the third to be found in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington since Aug. 10, when a hiker discovered a skull in the Big Lava Bed. On Sept. 4, a hunter found a skull near Sawtooth Berry Fields.
The remains found on Saturday likely belong to 69-year-old John Hopkins, of Seattle, who was reported missing in November 2022, the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Hopkins’ rental vehicle was found in the McClellan Meadows Sno-Park parking lot after he went missing, and in 2023 hunters found belongings believed to be his about a mile and half from where his car was found, sheriff’s officials said.
The sheriff’s office search-and-rescue team — many of whom are volunteers — successfully located the remains on Saturday.
“The Skamania County Sheriff’s Office is so thankful for the selfless volunteers who searched on Saturday,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “The Search and Rescue volunteers who serve our county are an incredible resource and we are so grateful for their service.”
The finding “will likely bring closure to Hopkins’ family,” the sheriff’s office said, although the identity of the remains is pending DNA analysis.
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