08/05/2003

From NWCN Staff and Wire Reports

PORTLAND - The skeletal remains discovered last weekend on Mount Hood belong to somebody nobody knew was missing on the mountain, Clackamas County Sheriff's detectives said Tuesday.

The person's identity will not be released until the state Medical Examiner's Office completes a full exam and family members are notified, a process that could take up to a week.

(KGW Photo)

Investigators also do not think the remains belong to two other hikers who have disappeared on the mountain and were never found. Kenneth Budlong failed to return from a solo hike in 1995; Karoly Janos Orsi went missing in 2001.

Clackamas County investigators said they do not think the person they suspect was found died under suspicious circumstances. Searchers found the remains on a steep, gravelly embankment more than four miles from Timberline Lodge.