PORT ANGELES – Authorities continue their effort to identify the body of a man found in the Peabody Creek gully at the east end of the Clallam County Courthouse parking lot on Saturday, January 11.
Clallam County Coroner Mark Nichols gave us an update on that effort to find out who it is, but also tells us who it isn’t.
“Thus far we’ve been able to confirm that the remains are those of an adult male who appeared to have a long whitish-gray in color beard at the time of death. We’ve also been able to confirm that the decedent was wearing a royal blue zip-up rain jacket and blue jeans. However, we have been unable to identify the decedent at this point in time. The decomposed condition of the body is hampering the effort going into the identification. And so, for this reason, we’ve been working with the King County medical examiner’s office to identify the remains. But we do know is that they have been able to rule out that the remains are those of Mr. Joshua Simiskey, who remains missing and unaccounted for at this point in time.”
Nichols says multiple forensic specialists are working on the case to identify the body and determine manner and cause of death.
“My interest is really in assuring folks and letting them know that we’re leaving no stone unturned. And as soon as we are able to identify who the remains belong to we will make sure that that information is released to the community, because some family out there is attached to this person.”
In the meantime, the family and friends of missing person Joshua Simiskey have organized a search party and candlelight vigil, scheduled for Saturday, February 8.
Simiskey’s mother, Janey Marvin, spoke to us from Utah.
“What we find is that everyone that’s homeless out there that knew Joshua before he disappeared, hasn’t seen him. But people who are homeless that never knew him before, claim that they see him. So people have volunteered to get together and go through some of the, you know, down to the homeless camp areas and passing out flyers and, you know, we’re still hoping that Josh is alive and in doing okay.”
The group will meet in the Goodwill parking lot in Port Angeles at 1:00pm.