SEQUIM — A woman’s foot discovered at the mouth of the Elwha River in December 2021 has been identified as belonging to a woman thought to have died by jumping off the Elwha River Road Bridge in 2018.
The late Jerilyn Lorraine Smith was reported missing on Jan. 7, 2018. She was 68 years old at the time of her disappearance. Authorities came to believe she died by jumping off the Elwha River Road Bridge and into the Elwha River west of Port Angeles.
Brian King, at that time the Clallam County chief criminal deputy and now sheriff, said then that Smith had a long history of depression and suicidal thoughts.
But the lifelong Sequim resident, who served as the Sequim-Dungeness Chamber of Commerce’s office administrator for 17 years and was the 2009 Sequim Irrigation Festival grand marshal, was remembered for her buoyant personality.
Smith was “always supportive and always upbeat,” said the chamber’s executive director at the time, Shelli Robb-Kahler, “and if anyone was having a bad day or a volunteer was having a bad day or had some unfortunate thing happen or a member was struggling or something, she was always that constant source of support, and had a this-too-will-pass kind of attitude.”
In 2018, search and rescue crews in kayaks, on foot and in a Coast Guard helicopter, were unable to locate Smith’s body during two days of searching.
In December 2021, beachcombers found a human foot clad in a shoe, later identified as a woman’s size 8 New Balance brand, near the mouth of the Elwha River. Yet investigators were unable to identify whose foot it was and leads in the case had grown cold.
In January 2023, a crowdfunding effort was begun that ultimately raised $7,500 to pay for advanced DNA testing of the foot. The testing was conducted by Othram, a Texas-based forensics company.
“Surviving family members were grateful to the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, Othram Labs, and the citizens who generously crowd-funded the familial DNA work performed by Othram Labs,” the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release announcing the identification.
“The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office would also like to thank all those who participated in funding the DNA research on this case that ultimately helped a family with having some semblance of closure during the grieved loss of their loved one,” the release said.
In an email last month, Sheriff King wrote that in this particular case, versus other random foot cases, the Sheriff’s Office had some suspicions as to the foot’s origin that they wanted to explore in more depth.
Othram is an American corporation specializing in forensic genealogy to resolve unsolved murders, disappearances and identification of unidentified decedents or murder victims. It was founded in 2018 in The Woodlands, Texas.
Kristen Mittelman is the chief development officer at Othram. She has a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology. She said Othram is the only company that identifies people from crime scenes versus medical or consumer cases.
The company’s employees are experts in the human genome and forensic grade genome sequencing techniques in the medical field, said Chief Development Officer Kristen Mittelman.
The company’s database is known as DNASolve (https://dnasolves.com), which often isn’t funded because the technology is so new, she said.
On Tuesday, the Sheriff’s Office’s Criminal Investigations Bureau announced it had received information from Othram Labs of a possible identification for the foot. The company provided a list of surviving family members to the identified DNA source to confirm the identity of the remains.
Sheriff’s detectives contacted one of the surviving family members who voluntarily provided a DNA sample which was sent to Othram Labs for comparison. Shortly thereafter, Othram Labs confirmed that the foot belonged to Smith.
In January 2018, family and friends held a memorial service for Smith at the Dungeness Community Church, led by her brother and pastor Ken Gilchrist.
During her life, Smith worked as a property manager and bookkeeper for Smith Family Enterprises for 40 years. Afterward, she spent time working as a secretary and/or receptionist at various businesses, as a bank customer representative, and as office manager and bookkeeper at Lynden Chamber of Commerce before serving as the Sequim-Dungeness Chamber of Commerce’s office administrator for 17 years. Coworkers said even after retirement Smith continued to volunteer there.
For being active in the community and a Sequim native, Smith was selected as grand marshal of the 2009 Sequim Irrigation Festival.
Ellen Swears, a volunteer at the Sequim Visitor Information Center run by the chamber, told Peninsula Daily News that Smith was the go-to person for inquires about Sequim and how it’s grown.
Family said Smith grew up on a farm loving animals and helping around the farm and that some of her hobbies through her life included watching old movies, playing board games, drawing, writing and playing pickleball.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at brian.gawley@soundpublishing.com.
