Remains found in 1981 just identified as woman missing for decades, Oregon police say
Illya “Ella” Wilkins vanished from an Oregon assisted living facility on Aug. 26, 1976, and was never seen again.
Despite searches, Wilkins, who had memory problems and was just one month shy of her 89th birthday, was never seen again, according to an April 13 news release from Oregon State Police.
Five years later in August 1981, “property owners counting trees outside of Sandy, Oregon in Clackamas County” happened upon a “partial human skull,” according to police.
These remains were long thought to belong to Wilkins, police said.
However, it was not until decades, on April 4, that the remains were finally confirmed to be Wilkins, according to police.
“Dignity is recovered when remains are no longer anonymous, and Ella Wilkins is now accounted for,” Nici Vance, a forensic anthropologist with the medical examiner’s office, said in the release. “Hope is why we are here.”
Though the remains found in 1981 were thought to be Wilkins, resources were limited and “forensic DNA examination did not yet exist,” police said.
For decades, the remains would go untouched.
Then in 2010 officials reanalyzed the remains and sent a sample of the skull to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, according to police.
Police said the profile was also entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
A “forensic DNA profile” was created from the skull sample, which was uploaded into the Combined DNA Index System, police said.
Even still, there were no matches, according to police.
Again, the remains would sit untouched for another 12 years until a bone sample was sent to Othram Inc., a forensic genealogy company, in July.
Genetic genealogy uses DNA testing coupled with “traditional genealogical methods” to create “family history profiles,” according to the Library of Congress. With genealogical DNA testing, researchers can determine if and how people are biologically related.
After “the DNA profile was uploaded into both FamilyTreeDNA and GEDmatch databases,” results showed a “distinct possibility the remains were, in fact, Ms. Illya ‘Ella’ Wilkins,” according to police.
The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office contacted Wilkins’ grandchild and got a DNA sample from them, police said.
This testing confirmed the unidentified remains were “genetically associated” with her grandchild, police said.
After the medical examiner positively identified the remains as Wilkins, they were “released to her remaining family members,” police said.
For over four decades, Wilkins’s case was listed as “pending resolution,” police said.
“With the power of investigative genetic genealogy, the case was resolved less than one year after innovative DNA testing began,” according to police.
Sandy is about 30 miles southeast of Portland.
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