Remains found last year confirmed to be that of Bellingham man missing since 2010
Remains found last year along the Columbia River in Eastern Washington have been confirmed to be those of a Bellingham man who went missing in 2010.
The Douglas County Sheriff in a Facebook post Wednesday, Aug. 25, confirmed that the skeletal remains it had sent to the University of North Texas Health Science Center last year for identification had been confirmed to be that of Roy Leon Groeneveld, a 44-year-old man from Bellingham.
Groeneveld’s skeleton was found April 19, 2020, by a person picking asparagus on a hill above the 2700 block of Tacoma Avenue in Bridgeport, according to a previous release from the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office said it believed in 2020 that the remains were those of Groeneveld’s, who went missing from a nearby residence in 2010 and was never located, but it was not until Wednesday’s release that it was confirmed.
A story posted Aug. 25 on NCWLife.com, a television station in North Central Washington, reported that Groeneveld went missing in 2010 while visiting family in the Bridgeport area.
NCWLife also reported that Groeneveld suffered from a debilitating medical condition when he disappeared after leaving his parents’ home without water or medication he needed.
He was declared legally dead before the identification was confirmed.
An obituary posted by the Wenatchee World in 2011, said that Groeneveld was born in Brewster in 1966 and graduated in Pateros in 1987 before moving to Bellingham that year and resided there until his death in 2010.
He attended Whatcom Community College and earned a degree in greenhouse management, according to the obituary.
