1971 Disappearance Remains A MysteryFebruary 16, 2006
By Bob Heye
and KATU.com Web Staff
CLARK COUNTY - It was an agonizingly long wait for a woman whose sister had been missing for more than three decades. Now DNA test results indicate she has to wait even longer for closure.
In 1980, a father and his son discovered a skull in remote hills in Clark County. Last June, investigators released a composite sketch made from the skull.
That sparked a glimmer of hope for Starr Lara, whose teenage sister went missing in 1971. Lara believed the sketch looked like Jamie Grisim, and she held onto the hope that she could finally bury her sister's remains.
"If someone's murdered, you need to have their body to lay it to rest," Lara said. "And to know what really happened."
Fueling Lara's belief was the fact that the skull had been discovered close to the area where some of Grisim's belongings had been found. Lara waited for DNA results for more than half a year, then on February 10 investigators told her the skull was not her sister's.
"Of course I'm sad because you don't have answers," Lara said. "But I would have been sad if it had been her."
Now Lara clings to the hope that the DNA on file will help quickly identify Grisim's remains if they are found. And she is willing to go through the whole process all over again.
"That's the only way you can get an answer as to where she is," she said.
Meanwhile, the Clark County Sheriff's Office is still hoping to identify the skull. They have been contacted by another family that believes the remains are a person that vanished before 1980. Sheriff's officials are still waiting for more DNA test results.
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