Man Found In Yost Park ID'd: SnoCo Medical Examiner

EDMONDS, WA — The Snohomish County Medical Examiner's office this week identified the 58-year-old man who was found dead in Yost Park last year as Timothy D. Conrad. The positive ID was reportedly made possible thanks to forensic genealogy.

Edmonds police earlier this month released a reconstructive sketch of Conrad hoping someone might help ID him. Ultimately, however, the Medical Examiner leaned on advances in DNA tracking to determine Conrad was the victim.

As previously reported on Patch, Edmonds police spokesman Shane Hawley said Conrad had been dead for some time — between two and four weeks — before he was found by a couple who were walking through the park on Nov. 10, 2018.

All that was known then, Hawley said, was that Conrad appeared to have died by strangulation, his manner of death being a suicide. A variety of personal belongings were found nearby Conrad's body, but nothing that identified him, police said.

Using Conrad's DNA, investigators compared possible familial connections in a national database and eventually hit on likely family members — adding to the list of cold cases in Snohomish County that have been closed recently thanks to advancements in forensic genealogy.

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Editor's Note: An earlier version of this post mistakenly noted Conrad's death as a homicide.