THE DALLES — City police recovered human remains from a storage unit at U-Haul on July 29, after a citizen reported it.
At 9:39 a.m., someone called The Dalles Police to report they had purchased an abandoned storage locker, and a container inside the locker seemed to hold human remains.
Officers responded and secured the area, according to a press release. They found enough to call in the Columbia Gorge Major Crimes for an investigation. The incident is being investigated as a possible crime.
The Wasco County District Attorney consulted at the scene and in the preparation of a search warrant.
The Mid-Columbia Major Crimes Team is made of investigators from The Dalles and Hood River police departments, Oregon State Police, and the sheriff’s offices of Wasco, Gilliam, Sherman and Hood River counties.
At about 5 p.m. that day, Major Crimes Team members with the help of Oregon State Police Crime Laboratory response team executed a search warrant at 2640 W. Sixth St., The Dalles — U-Haul Storage — and recovered the remains.
An autopsy will be done before the State Medical Examiner determines identity. More information can’t be released until later in the investigation, but will be disclosed “as soon as possible,” said Police Chief Tom Worthy.
The Dalles police “cautions against speculation or any conclusions based on the information released here,” said the press release. “Every available resource is being brought to bear to investigate this potential crime and I have every confidence in the abilities of our detectives and our partner agencies assisting us in this investigation.”
Those resources are the Gorge Major Crimes Team, OSP crime lab, and federal partners.
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