The Death of Josephine County John Doe, May 1978
On Tuesday, May 9, 1978, a crew working for a logging company was in the area of Holcomb Peak in Josephine County, OR, near the town of Williams in the same county. There they discovered partial human remains, including a skull and other bones in a wooded area.
One or more limbs, as well as one or more hands, were not recovered. The remains were not recognizable, as they were partial skeletal parts only. Because of this, many things such as hair color, height, weight, and eye color could not be determined.
Officers from the Josephine County Sheriff's Office, as well as search and rescue teams, scoured the area around the discovery site, "for clues to the identity of the victim and the cause of death." Despite this, no clues were found, and the cause of death is still undetermined. According to contemporary news reports, there were no signs of foul play.
The remains were initially believed to be those of a female between the ages of 15 and 25; because of this, many sources refer(red) to the decedent as "Jane Doe." However, in about 2020, this was amended, and the decedent was determined to be that of a male. John Doe's age group and range on NamUs are "Late Teen/Young Adult" and 14 to 18 years old, respectively.
John Doe is thought to have possibly been white, though his race is generally uncertain. Fragments of a brown sweater, as well as possibly a red shirt, were found near the teenager's remains. While NamUs does not indicate any estimations for John Doe's date of death or postmortem interval, the Doe Network indicates that he is believed to have died years prior to being found.
According to the Doe Network, John Doe's DNA and dentals — possibly including dental x-rays — are available for comparison, while his fingerprints are not. While NamUs states that he has twenty MP rule-outs, one of them is actually a repeat, so in reality there are 19 distinct exclusions, including Amy Billig, missing from Florida, and April Zane, missing from Illinois. There are multiple girls and young women on the list due to the previous belief that John Doe was female. The remaining exclusions on his list all went missing from western states in the 1970s, and consist of the following:
Missing from California: Jeannette Kamahele, Gregory Hinz, Peter Bonick, Phillip Montoya, Steven Ericson, Timothy Mckernan, and Andrew Ewing
Missing from Oregon: Cindy King, Rita Jolly, Ann Ellinwood, Karen Lee, Suzanne Justis, Jay Pringle, and Rodney Grissom
Missing from Washington State: Jamie Lee Grissim, Diane Sue Gilchrist, and David Boniske
John Doe's NamUs case, #UP11638, was created on September 30, 2013. It was last modified on May 27, 2025.
Anyone with information in John Doe's case is urged to please contact the Josephine County Sheriff's Office at (541) 474-5123 or jocosheriff@co.josephine.or.us. The agency case number is 78-1241. Any little piece of information counts.
Sources
Jane Doe map [Note: This map was created by a user on WS prior to the Doe being determined to be male.]
Albany Democrat-Herald 5/10/78, 5/15/78
Corvallis Gazette-Times 5/10/78
Oregon Journal 5/16/78
East Oregonian 5/17/78
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