Nov. 25 (UPI) — Oregon State Police said on Wednesday that a Department of Corrections cleanup crew discovered a human skull inside a backpack along the northbound lane of Interstate 5.
The crew found the backpack on Monday near Milepost 260, about 75 miles south of Portland, and contacted troopers with the Salem Area Command. Troops transported the items to the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office.
Upon initial examination, the office said it believed the skull was from a female in her late 30s to 40s. The office said the skull did not have any identifiable features.
In June 2018, a highway crew found another human skull with no other remains along Interstate 5 in Roseburg. In December 2019, authorities used DNA testing to determine that skull belonged to Scott Evenson, an Oregon man listed missing since 2016.
Evenson, whose disappearance was never reported to the police, but found on a Facebook post, had lived in Myrtle Creek nearly 200 miles south of Portland. He was around 44 at the time of his death.
A passerby found the body of a young girl in a duffle bag in Lincoln County, Oregon in late 2020 near the H.B. Van Duzer Scenic Corridor. The girl was identified as Haley Mae Coblentz, 9.
Her mother Shawna Browning, 29, and Lauren Harrison, 34, were arrested in Michigan for the child’s death but the charges were later dropped without explanation. That case remains open.
