BENTON COUNTY, Wash.-Partial human remains found in the Columbia River near the Blue Bridge in 1986 have now been identified.
The remains were recovered in the water by the Benton County Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 2, 1986 and were buried at Rest Haven Cemetery in Richland after they were unable to be identified.
The remains were exhumed by the Benton County Coroner’s Office on Sept. 11, 2023 and DNA was sent to an outside lab for analysis.
According to the BCSO, the lab searched for potential family matches to the DNA of the remains and was able to determine that the remains belonged to Patricia Kay Rodriguez, who was born on Dec. 12, 1949.
Reports and evidence have been reviewed and according to the most recent and available information, Rodriguez was known to have been alive in Yakima in early February of 1983, according to the BCSO.
She was reported missing out of Yakima in February 1983.
Some reports from the initial investigation no longer exist and information and witnesses have been hard to track down due to the passage of time and the circumstance and cause of Rodriguez’s death remain unknown.
