Detectives release age-progressed sketch of woman whose skull was found on Mt. Hood in 1986

PORTLAND — A forensic artist has created an age-progressed sketch of a 19-year-old woman whose skull was found on Mount Hood in hopes it may lead to more information about her 1976 disappearance and death.

Clackamas County sheriff’s officials are searching for anyone who knew Wanda Herr or may know something about what happened to her. Police hadn’t been able to identify her remains until last year and had only a photo of her at age 12 to go on.

Detectives hope the sketch may help jog someone’s memory.

Herr’s partial skull was discovered in 1986 by two U.S. Forest Service workers near Government Camp off U.S. 26. Forensic examiners determined the remains belonged to a young woman and that they had been in the woods for about 10 years.

The case sat stagnant for about 20 years until a state forensic anthropologist reexamined the remains in 2008 and developed a better victim description — the bones belonged to a woman in her late teens or early 20s.

Investigators finally found out who she was last year after medical examiners tracked down Herr’s sisters and confirmed through more DNA testing that the skull was hers.

Investigators have since reopened the case.

They determined that Herr, born in 1957, disappeared around June 1976. They believe she may have been living in a group home in the Gresham area, but know little else about her.

Officials say she was raised in a different home than her sisters and was believed to be a chronic runaway. No missing persons reports were filed using her name and she had no official records, including bank or police accounts.