3rd Human Skull Found in Skamania County, WA Wilderness

Yet another skull of a missing person has been found in a remote area of Skamania County, WA . The county borders Yakima and Klickitat County to the east, and Clark (Vancouver WA) to the west.  Hood River is across the Columbia River from the county.

   Skull identified as missing 69-year-old man

According to the Skamania County Sheriff's Office,  the skulls were all found in the same general area of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, which is one of the biggest in WA State.

John Hopkins, 69, of Seattle, was a hiker who went missing in November of 2022 is believed to be the person whose skull was found.  During the initial search, his vehicle was located about 1.5 miles away from some of his belongings, but until recently no remains were located.

According to MyNorthwest.com:

"This comes after two other sets of human remains were found around Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

On Aug. 10, a hiker found a human skull while in the national forest and reported it to local authorities. Detectives went out to find the human remains, but couldn’t until the hiker volunteered to return to the area five days later to help them recover the skull. Investigators believe these remains belonged to a hiker,  31-year-old Kristopher Zitzewitz from Portland, who’d been missing since 2013."

"The second set of remains, also a human skull, was discovered near Sawtooth Berry Fields on Sept. 4. The remains have yet to be identified as anyone, as of this reporting, with the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office stating DNA confirmation could take six months to a year to complete."

Officials say all the skulls and remains are not related.