The Sheriff’s Office partnered with Othram Labs, a private forensic lab based in Texas, to identify a DNA source from the foot.
The Sheriff’s Office usually relies on Washington State Patrol and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System for forensic analysis, said detective Sgt. Brian Knutson. However, the unique nature of the evidence meant the remains did not meet the criteria for testing through either agency, and the Sheriff’s Office had to crowdfund $7,500.
Othram Labs provided a list of surviving family members to the identified DNA source, and detectives contacted one of them for a DNA sample that was sent to the lab for comparison. The lab confirmed the foot belonged to Smith.
It’s not the first time a missing foot has washed ashore in Washington, leaving. Often, they leave investigators few clues about who died and how.
Since 2007, nearly two dozen human feet in sneakers have washed up along the coasts of the Salish Sea in the U.S. and Canada.
Changes in sneaker design and several factors that play into whether a body floats or drowns explains why so many feet in sneakers wash ashore. *bbm
The foot found near the mouth of the Elwha River belonged to Jerilyn L. Smith, last seen in January 2018. She was 68 years old when she disappeared from her Sequim home.
www.seattletimes.com
*Idk why this surprised me so much but it did. Two dozen? Who did they belong to besides Jerilyn and were they the right and left of the same person on any of them?
Due to the limited recovery of the woman's remains, CCSO worked with Othram, a private company that specializes in testing trace amounts, degraded or contaminated DNA.
"If you have, you know, a small piece of the skeleton, like a foot, for example, like, what what can you do with that?" asked David Mittelton, the CEO of Othram. "And then once we built it, the genealogy took a little time but we got through it. The investigators, we have to give them credit, too, because all we do is generate a lead but then we pass to the investigators," Mittelton said.
Jerilyn Smith's picture and information was posted to
NAM-US the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. Her car was found parked near the Elwha River Bridge west of Port Angeles. Divers searched the area but she was never found.
According to the Pennisula Daily News, Smith was the face of the chamber in Sequim. She was a grand marshal of the 2009 Sequim Irrigation Festival and was a chamber office administrator, retiring after 17 years. She later returned to volunteer her time.
Othram is grateful to help investigators find an answer in cases like this.
"Everything we do has to do about either seeking justice for a victim or trying to do our part in some small way to mend families that have been torn apart by either the loss of a loved one or or the infliction of a crime," Mittelton said.
A
DNASolves crowdfund was also created to cover the cost of the testing and casework. DNASolves works exclusively with law enforcement to facilitate fundraising for Othram's services.
DNA from a human foot inside of a shoe that washed up near the mouth of the Elwha River has been matched to a woman who was reported missing in 2018.
www.king5.com
dnasolves.com
komonews.com
