Fly fisher found piece of skull in 2018. DNA just linked it to missing Washington man
A fly fisher found a piece of a human skull in a Washington river in 2018. Two years later, another fragment was found in the same river.
After years of investigation, DNA recently identified the remains as belonging to Bret Snow, a homicide victim who was reported missing from Spokane Valley on Dec. 3, 2015, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said in a June 5 news release.
Investigators had no leads on the whereabouts of Snow’s body until after the skull fragments were found, the sheriff’s office said.
Officials put the skull fragments in storage when they were first found because the medical examiner couldn’t determine a cause of death or identify them, deputies said. The pieces were also treated as different cases because officials didn’t know they were related.
Information about the cases, however, were added to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System in June 2022.
The next month, part of the remains were sent to Othram, a lab in The Woodlands, Texas, that specializes in forensic genetic genealogy.
Othram created a DNA profile of the fragments to help find relatives, and a death investigator with the medical examiner’s office identified more than 30 first, second and third cousins.
After interviewing relatives, investigators learned of a missing family member — Snow.
Snow’s mother submitted a DNA sample, which confirmed the remains belonged to her son, deputies said.
Four people had been previously accused and convicted in connection to the killing Snow between 2019 and 2021, according to the sheriff’s office.
This story was originally published June 6, 2023 at 12:27 PM with the headline "Fly fisher found piece of skull in 2018. DNA just linked it to missing Washington man."
