News Release from: Clackamas Co. Sheriff's Office

UPDATED: Sheriff's Office investigates discovery of bones in Clackamas

Please refer to Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Case #11-17879

UPDATE: June 18, 2011, 11:10 a.m.

Late Friday (June 17, 2011), Clackamas County Sheriff's Office investigators confirmed the identity of the skeletal remains discovered earlier in the week in Clackamas.

After an extensive search, a mandible and teeth had been located at the scene of the discovery. Working with the Clackamas County Deputy Medical Examiner's Office, the Sheriff's Office was able to identify the remains by accessing dental records.

The deceased is identified as a 13-year-old female who had been reported missing by her concerned parents in Clackamas on Oct. 18, 2007.

While filing the missing-person report for their 13-year-old daughter, the parents had explained their daughter's long history of diagnosed mental illness. The daughter had been receiving both counseling and medication for diagnosed manic-depression.

At the time of her disappearance, a large amount of potentially fatal pharmaceutical pills were also reported missing from the family residence.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, in 2007, suicide was the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S., accounting for 34,598 deaths. The overall rate was 11.3 suicide deaths per 100,000 people. An estimated 11 attempted suicides occur per every suicide death.

Is suicide common among children and young people?

In 2007, suicide was the third leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24. Of every 100,000 young people in each age group, the following number died by suicide:

Children ages 10-14: 0.9 per 100,000
Adolescents ages 15-19: 6.9 per 100,000
Young adults ages 20-24: 12.7 per 100,000

As in the general population, young people were much more likely to use firearms, suffocation, and poisoning than other methods of suicide, overall. However, while adolescents and young adults were more likely to use firearms than suffocation, children were dramatically more likely to use suffocation.

There were also gender differences in suicide among young people, as follows:

Nearly five times as many males as females ages 15-19 died by suicide.
Just under six times as many males as females ages 20-24 died by suicide.

The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office extends their sincerest condolences to the family of the deceased.

EARLIER: June 15, 2011, 3:13 p.m.

At 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 15, 2011, Clackamas County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to the report of an inadvertent discovery of bones.

The bones were reportedly found in a shallow creek bed inside an area designated as a greenway, situated in the shared residential/commercial neighborhood that includes 13243 SE 124th Ave. in Clackamas.

Sheriff's Office Patrol deputies, Detectives and Forensic Evidence Technicians and personnel from the Clackamas County Deputy Medical Examiner's Office are on-scene investigating the discovery.

These investigators will thoroughly process the scene to recover all remains and any items of potential evidentiary value.

The reported advanced stage of decomposition of the remains will require additional forensic examination.

Investigators report that the discovery site had been ordered cleared of dense brush in the past year by Clackamas County Building and Zoning officials, with additional commercial construction taking place in the immediate area. A commercial parking garage is visible in the immediate area. One side of this shallow creek is occupied by homes; on the other side of the creek and greenway are businesses.

Additional details will be released as the investigation progresses.

TIPS SOUGHT

Anyone with information concerning this discovery is encouraged to contact the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office's confidential Tip Line -- by phone at 503-723-4949, or by using the online e-mail form. Please reference CCSO Case #11-17879.

The public can also submit crime-tip text messages to the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office from a cell phone. All users have to do is send a text message to CRIMES (274637 on your phone keypad) -- with the keyword CCSO as the first word in the message body. Important reminder: Please do not send emergency messages using the text-messaging system -- in case of an emergency, call 911.

Please refer to CCSO Case Number 11-17879

[END]

Jim Strovink, Detective
Public Information Officer
Clackamas County Sheriff's Office