Chain of Custody & The Irrigation Canal Recovery
In mid-August 1976, agricultural workers servicing irrigation channels near Prosser in rural Benton County, Washington, discovered a large wooden fruit crate or packing box floating lodged against a water gate in an irrigation lateral.
Deputies from the Benton County Sheriff's Office responded. Inside the wooden crate, wrapped in burlap and cloth, they discovered the decomposing remains of an unidentified adult woman. Her wrists were secured behind her back with metal handcuffs, and her mouth and head were bound with tape.
Autopsy & Forensic Pathology
The autopsy was performed by regional forensic pathologists. The decedent was an adult female, estimated between 25 and 40 years of age, measuring approximately 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 5 inches in height and weighing between 110 and 130 pounds. Anthropological profiling indicated European or mixed European/Native American ancestry.
The cause of death was definitively ruled homicide resulting from asphyxiation. Pathologists noted that the victim had been bound, gagged, placed inside the crate, and discarded into the Yakima River or tributary irrigation canal system. She was entered into NamUs as UP14518.
2017 Exhumation & Ongoing Genomics
In 2017, the Benton County Sheriff's Office exhumed the victim from the Prosser Cemetery to collect bone samples for modern DNA and isotopic profiling. The DNA Doe Project began working on the case in 2021, performing high-density SNP microarray extraction to build candidate genealogical family trees.