2026年6月11日 美国东部时间上午8:35 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
作者：艾米莉·梅·查霍尔 新闻编辑
艾米莉·梅·查霍尔是CBSNews.com的记者兼新闻编辑，通常报道突发新闻、极端天气和气候议题。她此前曾为《洛杉矶时报》、BuzzFeed和《新闻周刊》等媒体撰稿。
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官员表示，法医鉴定已确认一名最后一次被人见到是在1998年的男子的遗骸。这些遗骸是在华盛顿州奥林匹克国家公园偏远地区首次被发现的，鉴定工作在时隔26年后完成。
小约瑟夫·路易斯·塞拉奥原籍夏威夷，失踪前曾在华盛顿州生活，他的家人告诉协助国家公园管理局调查人员破案的法医实验室Othram。家人表示，自1998年起就再也没有收到过他的消息。
大约两年后，也就是2000年7月，一名研究人员在奥林匹克国家公园一处偏远区域的索尔达克河沿岸发现了人类骸骨，国家公园管理局表示。据公园管理局和该实验室透露，遗骸所在的睡袋放在一顶帐篷内，一同被发现的还有多件物品，包括双筒望远镜、日间徒步背包、肩包、折叠锯、毯子和冬季装备。
当时，华盛顿州金县验尸官办公室的一名病理学家判断，遗骸大概率属于一名30至50岁的男子，死亡时间至少在6个月以上，最多不超过两年。
调查人员后来确认，1960年12月出生的塞拉奥去世时应该接近40岁。但在当时，由于缺乏“可用”指纹和其他具体证据，当局无法获得可能帮助他们确认身份的线索。
他的身份一直成谜，直到最近才有了突破。据国家公园管理局介绍，2024年，验尸官办公室的一名人类学家向Othram实验室提交了一份DNA样本。该机构与金县当局和实验室一同调查了塞拉奥的案件。法医家谱学这项技术可以根据死者的DNA锁定其在世亲属，该实验室借此在2025年确认了可能的亲属关系。
调查人员联系了包括夏威夷在内的多个州的亲属，最终将他们的DNA样本与从塞拉奥遗骸上提取的样本进行了比对并确认匹配。
“这起案件悬而未决近30年，但调查人员从未放弃确认这名死者身份、为其家人找到答案的目标，”国家公园管理局刑事调查部副主任黛布拉·弗劳尔斯在一份声明中说道。“我为促成这次身份确认的坚持不懈和协作精神感到自豪，我希望这能让那些多年来一直苦苦思索约瑟夫下落的家属得到些许慰藉。”
Human remains found in sleeping bag in national park identified after 26 years
June 11, 2026 8:35 AM EDT / CBS News
By Emily Mae Czachor News Editor
Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She typically covers breaking news, extreme weather and climate. Emily Mae previously wrote for outlets like the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.
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Forensic tests have helped identify the remains of a man last seen in 1998, officials said. The tests were conducted 26 years after the remains were first discovered in a sleeping bag in the backcountry of Washington state’s Olympic National Park.
Joseph Louis Serrao Jr. was originally from Hawaii and had been in Washington prior to going missing, his family told Othram, the forensic laboratory that helped National Park Service investigators solve his case. The family said they had not heard from him since 1998.
About two years later, in July 2000, a researcher discovered human skeletal remains in a remote part of Olympic National Park, along the Sol Duc River, the National Park Service said. The sleeping bag in which the remains were found was inside a tent, and discovered with it were multiple items, including binoculars, a day hiker pack, a shoulder bag, a folding saw, a blanket and winter gear, according to the park service and the laboratory.
At the time, a pathologist from the medical examiner’s office in Washington’s King County determined the remains likely belonged to a man between the ages of 30 and 50, who had died at least six months and up to two years earlier.
Investigators eventually learned that Serrao, who was born in December 1960, would have been in his late 30s at the time of his death. But, back then, the lack of “usable” fingerprints and other concrete evidence prevented authorities from developing leads that might have helped them uncover his identity.
His name remained unknown until recently. A breakthrough came once an anthropologist with the medical examiner’s office submitted a DNA sample to Othram in 2024, according to the park service, which investigated Serrao’s case alongside King County authorities and the laboratory. Using forensic genealogy — a technique that can help pinpoint living relatives of a deceased person based on the decedent’s DNA — the lab was able to identify possible family members by 2025.
Investigators reached out to relatives in multiple states, including Hawaii, and eventually compared and matched DNA samples from them to the one taken from Serrao’s remains.
“This case remained unresolved for nearly 30 years, but investigators never lost sight of the goal of identifying this individual and finding answers for his family,” Debra Flowers, deputy chief of the park service’s criminal investigative division, said in a statement. “I’m proud of the persistence and collaboration that made this identification possible, and I hope it brings some measure of closure to those who have spent so many years wondering what happened to Joseph.”
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