For the third time in a month, authorities have recovered a set of human remains in the same southwest Washington state park.
The discovery this past weekend in Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Lewis County, Washington, turned up the corpse belonging to 69-year-old John Hopkins of Seattle.
Hopkins was reported missing after he vanished in November 2022. His car was recovered in the McClellan Meadows Sno-Park parking lot shortly after he disappeared, according to the Skamania County Sheriff's Office.
In 2023, hunters located his belongings less than two miles away from his car, but his whereabouts remained a mystery.
Several search efforts proved unsuccessful, until Saturday, when searchers located skeletal remains believed to belong to Hopkins.
"The Skamania County Sheriff's Office is so thankful for the selfless volunteers who searched on Saturday, finding what will likely bring closure to Hopkins' family," the sheriff's office said in a statement. "The Search and Rescue volunteers who serve our county are an incredible resource and we are so grateful for their service."
A cause of death remains unclear.
The grim discovery comes just one month after two separate skulls were found in the same forest.
A hiker came upon the first skull Aug. 10, authorities announced last month. It's believed those remains belong to a hiker who vanished in 2013, however their identity has not been confirmed.
Then on Sept. 4, a bear hunter discovered another human skull. The identity of that person has also not been confirmed by authorities.
"There are no indicators to believe there is a public safety risk based on the circumstances of the discovery," the sheriff's office said on Facebook at the time.
