"Human remains from Priest Lake analyzed: Specialized recovery team returns to Priest Lake, remains sent for DNA tests, by Youssef Sleiman

PRIEST LAKE – Heavily decalcified unidentified skeletal remains were fully recovered from 327 feet below the surface of Priest Lake Tuesday morning, May 18.

The remains were initially found in 2004 and only partially recovered. The heavy loss of calcium from the bones has indicated the body may have been at the bottom of the lake for more than 50 years. However, no DNA was recovered from the sample, and the remains were left for six years – until a series of perfect conditions.

Specialists involved in the first team, Ralston and Associates Underwater Search and Rescue, began coordinating with a Colorado researcher and a biology professor at Boise State University. Environmental consultant Gene Ralston, leading Ralston and Associates, said they’ve always been interested in determining whose remains were off of Eight Mile Island in Priest Lake.

Body recovery is “just something we do out of compassion,” Ralston said.

“There’s no feeling in the world like walking up the boat ramp and returning the bodies of two twin boys to their mother after everyone else has thrown up their hands,” Ralston said. “It’s an incredible thing to do.”

Ralston’s team contacted cold case historian Silvia Pettem, author of “Someone’s Daughter.” In her book, Pettem unearths a case around an unidentified, female murder victim from 1954. Her compiled research inspired pro bono forensics and private donations that identified the murder victim. While the effort was emotionally draining, it was also a “very satisfying experience for me.”

Pettem offered to do research on the known drowning victims in Priest Lake.
“If I can help another family find closure, I am available to do so,” Pettem wrote in an e-mail to The Miner.

Ralston also contacted Boise State University biology and criminal justice professor Greg Hampikian to perform a DNA analysis of the full remains Ralston intended to recover. Ralston said Hampikian offered to perform the tests at no charge “as their part of the mystery.”

With the team assembled, Ralston decided it was time to go back to Priest Lake.

The ancient remains were first discovered in 2004 when Priest Lake Search and Rescue, Ralston and the Bonner County sheriff’s office were called to search for lost Kennewick firefighter David Lewis, whose sailboat had been found off of Eight Mile Island.

The firefighter remains missing, but in 2004, a much older body was found – with a sunken 16-foot long boat about 250 feet away from the person. Ralston said the boat, at a depth of 310 feet, could hold clues to its origin, though recovering it could be a dangerous operation for a technical diver. The possibility of dragging the boat up is slim because of the configuration of the boat and its own decomposition state. Instead, the team shot underwater video of the boat and circulated it “to try and jog old timer’s memories,” Ralston said.

The sheriff’s office has not announced the exact location of the find to protect the investigation.

Ralston said the body’s decomposition was at “what we call ‘end stage.’ They have gone as far as they can go.” While searching for the firefighter, the search dogs alerted investigators to the remains. However, choppy winds, unsettled waters and a borrowed remote operated vehicle with less sophistication made it difficult to recover the full body. Instead, the search team brought up a small part of the remains, but later investigators could collect no DNA.

When Ralston and the sheriff’s office went to Eight Mile Island again Tuesday, May 21, another series of perfect conditions came into play. Ralston, since 2004, had purchased a remote operated vehicle capable of more delicate maneuvers. Further, the weather on Priest Lake was absolutely still.

“The water was like glass,” Ralston said. “It was absolutely perfect weather, no wind, no boats on the water. They were perfect conditions.”

The skeletal remains were maintained in water, transported in water, and Bonner County coroner Kit Rose was able to freeze the body, which was transported frozen to BSU. Hampikian had not begun the DNA analysis because he was out of the area. He is anticipated back to the BSU labs in early June.

Until the DNA from the remains has been identified, the search team is collecting DNA from any possible family members. Anyone who feels a family connection to the remains is possible should contact the Bonner County sheriff’s office to submit a DNA sample.

No record of another missing person at this location is known.

“I realize that in the Priest Lake case, we are looking at an accidental drowning (at least that is the presumption at this time),” Pettem wrote in an e-mail to The Miner, “but the victim, most likely, has a family, somewhere. I believe that as a society we are obligated to recover this victim and return his remains to his family.”

Pettem’s research has found 14 people who have gone missing and were never recovered from Priest Lake. Early on, Ralston said, the research team had identified about a dozen people but ruled them all out because of the area of the lake they had gone missing in.

Ralston stressed that the located boat may be a coincidence. It was found 250 feet away at a depth of 310 feet. While reasonable to assume the boat belonged to the recovered victim, it does put a shadow across finding the victim’s identity.

According to Pettem’s research posted on her website, the boats of all 14 known drowning victims were found. This body could be any of the known missing victims. If the boat did belong to the person recovered Tuesday, then the person would be a previously unknown drowning victim.

[NOTE: Since this article was written, a newly discovered article on the 1948 drowning does NOT mention recovery of the three men's boat, however it was "light steel, with outboard motor."]

According to Pettem’s website, those reported missing but not recovered from Priest Lake are the following:
Lost in 1919, Bob Carey of Coolin, Peter DeFeyter of Spokane, Seabury Merritt of Spokane, Henry Engdahl of Spokane; lost in 1945, Frank Clausen of Spangle, Wash.; lost in 1948, Jack Felling, Bernard George Van Alstine, Quentin Brice Van Alstine; lost in 1950, Ralph Roger Bailey of Newport; lost in 1960, Donald Katke, lost near Pinto Point; lost in 1987, Clemente Godina; lost in 1995, Mark Bondeson; and lost in 2004, David Lewis of Kennewick, Wash.

The sheriff’s office is in contact with five of the descendents of the missing victims.