The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the remains of a family that had been missing for more than 60 years.
Just over a year ago, investigators pulled the Martin family’s wrecked car from the Columbia River and recovered the remains of three people.
A Christmas photo of the Ken Martin family from left are, Barbara, 7, Ken, Barbara, Sue, 4 1/2, Donald, 21 and Virginia, 6 in Portland, Or., December 1952.
AP
The Hood River County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday the people inside were Kenneth Martin, Barbara Martin and Barbie Martin. Their remains were confirmed through DNA analysis by Othram, Inc., a forensic genetics laboratory.
“Othram uses the identity inference method, which allows scientists to identify individuals from DNA evidence even when no direct comparison sample is initially available,” Sgt. Joel Ives, a spokesperson with the sheriff’s office, said in a statement.
The family disappeared on Dec. 7, 1958, while visiting the Columbia River Gorge to collect Christmas greenery, according to the sheriff’s office.
A few months later, two siblings, 13-year-old Virginia and 11-year-old Susan Martin, were found downstream from the Columbia River. But their older sister, Barbie, and parents, Kenneth and Barbara, were not located despite several searches.
Last year, police worked to pull the vehicle out of the water after a private diver, Archer Mayo, alerted authorities that he had located a car in a catch-basin area of the river that he believed belonged to the Martin family.
Related: Car found in Columbia River could be tied to family missing since 1958
