{"id":21404,"date":"2026-07-29T22:59:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21404"},"modified":"2026-07-29T22:59:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:59:30","slug":"murder-victim-found-in-oregon-woods-in-1972-identified-as-wwii-veteran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21404","title":{"rendered":"Murder victim found in Oregon woods in 1972 identified as WWII veteran"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>Investigators have identified the remains of a murder victim whose bones were discovered in the woods of southwestern Oregon in 1972.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Armes Henry Lahti, of Astoria, Oregon, was a United States Navy veteran who served in the military during World War II, according to the Coos County Sheriff&#8217;s Office. Coos County includes the wooded area where Lahti&#8217;s skeletal remains were found by a teen who was peeling chittum bark from a tree nearby.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, authorities were able to determine that Lahti had died after being shot twice in the head, and they classified the death as a homicide. But, outside of clothing items and a set of denture plates inscribed with a partially illegible set of numbers, there was too little evidence recovered from the scene to generate leads in the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The sheriff&#8217;s office estimated that Lahti had been killed almost a decade before his remains were uncovered. It would take more than another 50 years to identify him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed__float-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-large\" data-ads=\"{\" extrawordcount=\"\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/07\/29\/1f6dcdd9-bf46-49f5-85bc-9579fab9a460\/thumbnail\/620x326\/6d549fbf847d28b1f32313b46d03ffef\/oregon-cold-case-victim.png#\" alt=\"oregon-cold-case-victim.png \" height=\"326\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/07\/29\/1f6dcdd9-bf46-49f5-85bc-9579fab9a460\/thumbnail\/620x326\/6d549fbf847d28b1f32313b46d03ffef\/oregon-cold-case-victim.png 1x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">Armes Henry Lahti, a U.S. Navy veteran who served in World War II.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                Coos County Sheriff&#8217;s Office\/Othram Inc.<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In 2025, authorities began to review the details of what had become a cold case. The Oregon State Medical Examiner&#8217;s Office submitted evidence to a laboratory that specializes in <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/woman-murdered-1936-buried-underneath-building-identified-toronto\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">investigative genetic genealogy<\/a><\/span>, a crime-solving approach that combines DNA profiling and &#8220;family tree&#8221; research to help identify unknown victims of crimes. Although expensive, the technique is being used more and more often to close long-unsolved murder or missing persons cases.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists were able to extract enough DNA from the evidence collected during the initial investigation. Eventually, their analyses led law enforcement to Lahti&#8217;s relatives, <a href=\"https:\/\/dnasolves.com\/articles\/coos-county-bandon-1972-john-doe-armes-henry-lahti\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according<\/a> to the lab that performed the testing.<\/p>\n<p>Born in 1909, Lahti was described by family members as an avid fisherman and a large yet gentle man ironically nicknamed &#8220;Mousy.&#8221; Relatives remembered him as someone who &#8220;loved the sea and was proud of his service to his country,&#8221; the sheriff&#8217;s office said.<\/p>\n<p>Even though the remains have now been identified, authorities haven&#8217;t pieced together the circumstances surrounding his death or who might be responsible for it. The sheriff&#8217;s office said that investigators have learned Lahti &#8220;had a dispute at a bar&#8221; shortly before his disappearance, after which he &#8220;walked away with a rifle.&#8221; According to the office, that dispute likely took place in 1965.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While the case is as old as 60 years ago, we would like to bring justice to Armes and his family,&#8221; the office said. They&#8217;ve asked anyone with information, &#8220;no matter how seemingly small,&#8221; to contact them.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n        <\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Investigators have identified the remains of a murder victim whose bones were discovered in the woods of southwestern Oregon in 1972.\u00a0 Armes Henry Lahti, of Astoria, Oregon, was a United States Navy veteran who served in the military during World War II, according to the Coos County Sheriff&#8217;s Office. Coos County includes the wooded area&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/07\/29\/1f6dcdd9-bf46-49f5-85bc-9579fab9a460\/thumbnail\/1200x630\/ae15ce9fbb61e4b2de68a10c5df66dac\/oregon-cold-case-victim.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}