Man vanished in Washington more than 40 years ago. Now DNA helped identify his remains

A Minnesota man had been in Washington state for a “short time” when he went missing in 1977.

For more than 40 years, no one knew what happened to him — until now.

The Kittitas County Coroner’s Office in Washington just identified remains found in 1978 as those of the man who disappeared: Donald Grant Anderson, according to a news release.

The case began in May 1978 when authorities located unidentified human remains near Westside Road in Upper Kittitas County, about 80 southeast miles of Seattle, the coroner’s office said.

When the remains were sent to Dr. James Alexander at Central Washington University’s Anthropology department, they were initially believed to belong to a 30 to 40-year-old female who had died in the last three to nine months, the release said.

Despite examinations performed by a pathologist and an odontologist, there was not enough information to identify the body.

Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office detectives continued their investigation through the early 2000’s when a DNA sample was extracted and sent to a lab for comparison. No match was found, authorities said.

Later, Washington State University anthropologist Dr. Katherine Taylor sent another DNA sample to the University of North Texas’ health center laboratory for another attempt using “improved DNA technology,” the release said.

Again, no match was found. But results showed that the remains belonged to a male — not a female as was originally believed, according to the coroner’s office.

In 2020, Kittitas County Coroner Nick Henderson sent a DNA sample to a forensic genealogy database.

“Genealogical DNA analysis used a wider spectrum of DNA information to find both close and distant relatives of an unknown subject,” the coroner’s office said.

Finally, in December 2021, authorities identified a possible sibling for the person found in 1978.

The coroner’s office said it remained in contact with the sibling and other family members and eventually identified the deceased person as Anderson.

Family members said he was originally from Minnesota but had been in Washington for a “short time prior to being reported as a missing person.”

Deputies are investigating the circumstances surrounding Anderson’s death, according to the release.

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