PICTURED: Kathy Thomas, whose remains were found in the rural hills of Oregon in 1996
Twenty-five years after a woman's unidentified skeletal remains were found in the rural hills of Oregon, police have arrested her husband in connection with her cold case murder.
On Tuesday, Brian Clifton, 68, was arraigned on first-degree murder in Polk County, for the 1996 murder of his wife Kathy Thomas.
No missing persons reports were filed for Kathy in 1996, nor was there any record of a divorce from Brian - despite him remarrying - so no one suspected she had died.
According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, Kathy's remains were discovered on September 1, 1996, bound with rope and wrapped in tarp in the hills overlooking the Mill Creek area.
Although detectives determined the woman had died as a result of a homicide, they were unable to confirm her identity at the time.
Throughout the years, detectives attempted to identify Clifton through sketches, CT scans, 3D rendered images, and recreated skulls, but came up short.
Finally in 2019, with the assistance of a new DNA technique, detectives were finally able to put a face to the unidentified female.
Yolanda McClary, who is a retired Crime Scene Investigator with the Las Vegas Metro Police Department, contacted Polk County Sheriffs and explained she was working on developing a new TV show to financially assist agencies in identifying unidentified remains in cold cases.
Over a 10-month research period, McClary assisted Polk County in identifying Clifton remains with the help of genealogists.
