An investigator at the scene in Interlaken on August 30th
The human remains found by a father searching for the site in Interlaken Park where the body of his homeless son had been found five days earlier have yet to be identified.
An investigator with the King County Medical Examiner tells CHS there are currently no leads in sorting out an identification in the case. Police believe the incident to be a natural death that took place in the leafy greenbelt below northern Capitol Hill.
The body was discovered Labor Day weekend, Sunday, September 4th as Jonathan LeBaron searched the ravine for the site where his son had died in the park. Jon LeBaron, 29, had struggled with drug addiction and homelessness for nearly eight years before he went missing earlier this year, his father told CHS. Police told LeBaron his son had likely been dead for two months when he was found on August 30th by two people who said they were hiking through the woods when they noticed the 29-year-old’s shoe.
Five days later, the elder LeBaron found what appeared to be a human skull and an old camp site overgrown with ivy as he searched for the location in the park where his son had been found, according to the police report on the investigation, and scrambled back up to the streets above Interlaken to call police. Arriving officers found skeletal remains and cordoned off the area for a death investigation.
The county Medical Examiner’s office tells CHS the victim has not yet been linked to any missing persons and no additional information such as gender or approximate age is currently available for public release.
For LeBaron, the discovery of the skull was just one in a series of odd connections in his journey to visit Interlaken. By chance, one of the officers that responded to his 9-1-1 call on September 4th had been on the scene when LeBaron’s son was discovered on August 30th. The officer showed LeBaron where his son was found and how he was positioned, resting under a large cedar tree.
Earlier, a Seattle Police spokesperson said there were no plans for a sweep of the Interlaken Park greenbelt unless something criminal is revealed during the medical examinations.
