Highlands mystery likely to go unsolved

The names of Highlands Man and Woman likely will remain lost in time.

The grave of this young man and older woman was uncovered by chance in early May by a local builder digging a utility trench for a new house on Edmonds Avenue Northeast in the Highlands.

The young man’s remains were found first. His discovery set off a police investigation that determined he wasn’t murdered. The woman’s remains were found days later, in another coffin, but in the same grave.

From metal parts of the coffins that survived, researchers determined the two had likely died in the early years of the 1900s. They talked with long-time residents and poured through property records. They searched for clues on the bones that may have revealed something about the deceased.

The search even led to a long-gone grocery store in north Renton, whose owners may have lived in the house that once stood where the remains were found. They didn’t. The house was a rental.

Now, the trail has grown cold. The permit to do excavation expires at the end of the month. Researchers have asked for birth and death records from early in the 1900s they expect to examine next week.

That’s their last hope.

A disappointed lead investigator isn’t holding out much hope.

“The mystery is going to remain a mystery,” said Dr. James Chatters, a forensic anthropologist who is leading the researchers from AMEC Earth and Environmental Services in Kirkland.

If nothing is found in the records, the investigation will end, Chatters said. The remains of the man and woman are now with Chatters, but they will be turned over to Renton builder Jim Jacques for reburial.

Jacques is paying for the investigation, which he has estimated will cost up to $15,000.

Jacques has continued work on the new homes in the development. Members of Chatters’ team returned as more excavation was done just in case more remains were found. Nothing was uncovered.

The area is not a cemetery, but likely was the final resting place for two people who died sometime around 1920. Chatters doesn’t know – and likely will never know – what caused the death of the two people or why they were buried side-by-side in the same grave.

Contact Renton Reporter Editor Dean Radford at editor@rentonreporter.com or 425-255-3484, ext. 5050.

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