Series of human remains found in Skamania County aren’t connected, sheriff says

PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) — The three sets of human remains found in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest between Aug. 10 and Sept. 14 are unrelated, Skamania County Sheriff Summer Scheyer told KOIN 6 News.

While all of the human remains recovered from the forest are officially unidentified, the sheriff’s office strongly suspects that it has linked two of the discovered sets of bones to two different missing persons cases.

“Two out of the three are without DNA evidence and are more than likely related to missing persons that have been reported missing while recreating in our County,” Scheyer said. “Although it is not abnormal for us to recover these types of remains for a missing person long after they were reported missing, it is abnormal and quite shocking to find them in such a short period of time.”

The sheriff’s office is confident that the first set of remains found in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest since August belong to 31-year-old Portland man Kristopher Zitzewitz, who was reported missing in 2013, Scheyer said. The remains were discovered by a hiker in the Big Lava Bed area.

The second set of remains were discovered by a bear hunter near Sawtooth Berry Fields in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest on Sept. 4. A human skull was ultimately recovered by the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office and deputies are remaining tight-lipped about the case until a DNA test can be completed. Scheyer said that DNA confirmation could take six months to a year to complete.

The Skamania County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team found the third set of remains in the McClellan Meadows area on Sept. 14. The remains were found as part of a continued effort to find 69-year-old John Hopkins of Seattle, who was reported missing in 2022. The sheriff’s office has been looking for Hopkins since a local resident reported seeing his rental van buried in heavy snow for multiple days at the McClellan Meadows Sno-Park parking lot.

The sheriff’s office searched the snowy meadow for Hopkins in November of 2022 with no results. In 2023, deer hunters found items belonging to Hopkins in a heavily wooded area, which initiated another unsuccessful search for his remains. With no snow on the ground and a better idea of where the remains might be, the sheriff’s office successfully found more items belonging to Hopkins and what are believed to be his remains.

While DNA tests are still needed to confirm the victims’ identities, Scheyer said that she is “grateful to bring closure to the families” affected by missing persons cases.

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