Sister ‘always hoped to find’ sibling who vanished in OR in 1974. Mystery solved
Marion Vinetta Nagle McWhorter was last seen at an Oregon shopping mall in 1974.
The 21-year–old “was never heard from again,” and nearly five decades passed without answers in her disappearance, Oregon State Police said in a Sept. 16 news release.
“Family members lived and died without ever knowing what happened to their missing loved one,” State Forensic Anthropologist Hailey Collord-Stalder said in the release.
But with the passage of time also came advancements in DNA testing, which helped finally bring about some closure to the decades-old mystery; remains found by a moss hunter in 1976 have been identified as those of McWhorter, police said.
“I always hoped to find her,” McWhorter’s sister, Valerie Nagle, told Oregon Live.
Moss hunter finds remains
A moss hunter was searching in Wolf Creek near Swamp Mountain in Linn County on July 24, 1976, when they stumbled upon a skull, police said, adding that the hunter contacted the Linn County Sheriff’s Office about the skull, which had several teeth.
Deputies followed the moss hunter back to the skull’s location and found more skeletal remains, according to police.
“Along with the remains, investigators located a clog-style shoe, a fraying fringed leather coat, a leather belt with Native American-style beadwork, two metal rings, and a pair of degraded Levi’s jeans,” all of which were saved as evidence, police said.
A pathologist and odontologist with the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office examined the remains, but their findings were undetermined, officials said.
Despite investigation, decades pass without answers
Decades later, investigators took a new approach in search of answers.
The Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History conducted an anthropology report for the remains in 2010, which included a biological profile for a woman who was younger than 35 years old when she died, police said.
The woman’s identity, however, was still unknown.
Investigators sent a bone sample to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, where a profile was made and entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, police said.
NamUs, a “national repository for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed persons cases,” serves as a resource for “law enforcement, medical examiners, coroners, and investigating professionals,” according to the program’s website.
DNA samples were also uploaded into the Combined DNA Index System, authorities said.
CODIS is “a computer software program that operates local, state, and national databases of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence, and missing persons,” according to federal prosecutors.
Even still, no matches were found.
The following year, police said a Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office forensic artist created a forensic rendering of the woman’s face based on her skull features.
A clay model was also created, featuring different hairstyles, in hopes of creating a depiction of the woman that someone may recognize, according to police.
Despite the woman’s case being checked regularly against new cases in NamUs, no matches ever surfaced, officials said.
Further DNA testing confirmed the remains to be female, but police said the DNA profile had limitations that meant it could not be used to determine ancestry or phenotype.
Grant funds advanced DNA testing
Then, in 2020, the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office was awarded a grant from the National Institute of Justice that could be used to fund advanced DNA testing on unsolved cases, authorities said.
A bone sample was sent to Parabon NanoLabs in hopes DNA phenotyping and investigative genetic genealogy could lead to the woman’s identification, police said.
DNA phenotyping is a process that uses DNA to predict physical appearance, according to Parabon NanoLabs.
Based on Parabon’s report, police said the woman was predicted to be of “European and Indigenous North American descent, with unfreckled fair skin, brown eyes, and brown hair.”
With those features, a rendering of her face was made and uploaded to her NamUs page, police said.
In 2023, police said investigators created a genetic genealogy report.
Genetic genealogy uses DNA testing coupled with “traditional genealogical methods” to create “family history profiles,” according to the Library of Congress. With genealogical DNA testing, researchers can determine if and how people are biologically related.
The report, however, came with no promising leads, police said
Spontaneity helps lead to ID
In April, “someone spontaneously uploaded their genetic profile to the Family Tree DNA database,” paving the way for a “breakthrough in the case,” police said.
This profile gave genealogists a much more detailed look of the woman’s family tree, police said.
Through following additional leads, police said forensic scientists determined the remains likely belonged to McWhorter.
McWhorter had one living relative: a younger sister who lived in the Seattle, Washington, area, police said.
A Linn County Sheriff’s Office detective spoke with the woman, who gave a DNA sample for comparison and also “shared the story of her long-lost older sister,” according to police.
The DNA comparison confirmed the remains were McWhorter, who was born Jan. 7, 1953, and had been missing since 1974, police said.
“Forensic genetic genealogy allowed us not only to assist Oregon law enforcement and medicolegal personnel in identifying a woman who likely did not go missing voluntarily, but it also helped provide her family with answers and help relieve the uncertainty of what happened to Marion McWhorter,” Collord-Stalder said.
Linn County deputies are continuing an investigation into the circumstances surrounding McWhorter’s death, police said.
Wolf Creek is in southern Oregon, about a 250-mile drive south from Portland.
This story was originally published September 17, 2025 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Sister ‘always hoped to find’ sibling who vanished in OR in 1974. Mystery solved."
