The remains of a Billings man reported missing more than a half century ago were positively identified by Oregon authorities after an extensive forensic investigation.
Mark Smith left his home in Billings in 1974 to travel and was never heard from again. According to a Friday social media post by Oregon State Police, skeletal remains found in 1978 were identified on Feb. 26, 2026, as belonging to Smith, who was 19 when he disappeared.
State police noted that Smith's sister told the medical examiner's office that his family had thought of him daily since he disappeared. His family is requesting privacy and declining media requests for interviews, according to state police.
Read the full news release from Oregon State Police.
The last known photograph of Smith was taken at his sister's wedding in 1973, a year before he left Billings. On May 9, 1978, a logging crew found a partial skeleton near Williams, Ore., in Josephine County, a mountainous area near Holcomb Peak about a 90-minute drive from the California border.
A skull and shoulder blade bone fragment were found, along with pieces of a shirt and brown sweater, but authorities could not identify the individual using the technology of the time, according to state police. An examiner thought the remains belonged to a female, and the case went cold.
In 2020, after submitting the remains to the University of North Texas for DNA extraction and analysis, the remains were identified as a male, which restarted the investigation, according to state police.
The Oregon state medical examiner's office began working with a private firm, DNA Labs International, to identify missing persons through genealogical records. Initial attempts were able to identify a likely relative of the remains from the 1800s but little more, and the lab agreed to keep working on the case for free, according to Oregon State Police.
The investigation stalled until 2025, when a further analysis of the DNA identified a previously unknown branch of the family tree of the 1800s-era relative. That's when Smith's family confirmed to Oregon authorities that he had gone missing, and siblings were able to provide swabs that helped authorities confirm the remains belonged to Mark Smith.
“We are grateful that Mark has finally been returned to his family. This identification reflects years of persistence, scientific collaboration, and the evolving power of forensic genetic genealogy,” Hailey Collord-Stalder, the Oregon state forensic anthropologist, said in a written statement.
Authorities have found no evidence to suggest foul play, but Oregon State Police said they are continuing to investigate Smith's death.
