{"id":5889,"date":"2011-04-12T19:21:09","date_gmt":"2011-04-13T02:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=5889"},"modified":"2011-04-12T19:44:12","modified_gmt":"2011-04-13T02:44:12","slug":"skull-found-near-mineral-opens-up-new-questions-in-old-homicides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=5889","title":{"rendered":"Skull found near Mineral opens up new questions in old homicides"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

CHEHALIS – Learning the identity of the man whose skull was found recently near Mineral now means revisiting decades-old cases, including a missing person, a stabbing death and possibly the homicides of another couple.<\/p>\n

\"2011.0412.riemer.robertson\"<\/a>

Michael L. Riemer and Diana K. Robertson<\/p><\/div>\n

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office this morning said the skull discovered\u00a0 March 26 in a wooded area north of Mineral belongs to Michael Lloyd Riemer, a Pierce County man who was reported missing in December 1985.<\/p>\n

Riemer’s significant other, Diana K. Robertson, went missing at the same time from Pierce County, and her body was found the following February. The 21-year-old woman’s death was determined to be a homicide and Riemer was considered a person of interest, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

The sheriff’s office doesn’t yet know if Riemer died at his own hands or someone else’s, Chief Deputy Stacy Brown said today.<\/p>\n

“We don’t know. In fact, it doesn’t really help or change the investigation because there are still so many unknowns,” Brown said.<\/p>\n

The sheriff’s office announced the find two weeks ago, saying a partial skull was found by someone hiking in the Mineral area.<\/p>\n

It was actually discovered by a man on property where he lives, on an abandoned logging road that goes through his property, Brown said today. It was in a brushy area on the ground, she said.<\/p>\n

During detective’s follow up search, a mandible – the portion with the jaw and teeth – was found a little ways away from the skull, according to Brown.<\/p>\n

The remains were sent to a specialist for identification, which was made through dental records, Brown said.<\/p>\n

Brown said there was no trauma detected on Riemer’s skull and there was enough of the skull recovered they are also able to conclude he wasn’t shot in the head.<\/p>\n

“There was a driver’s license found at the scene also, but we don’t know who it belongs to,” Brown said. It’s too weathered to read, she said.<\/p>\n

Riemer was a person of interest in Robertson’s death since he vanished at the same time. He was 36 years old. One theory was he killed her and then took off, Brown said.<\/p>\n

Their 2-year-old daughter was found wandering alone at a K-Mart in Spanaway on the day the pair went missing, according to Brown.<\/p>\n

During 1986, there were several attempts made by searchers to find Riemer, according to the sheriff’s office.<\/p>\n

His remains were found within a mile of where hers had been discovered in February 1986.<\/p>\n

She was stabbed in the chest, Brown said.<\/p>\n

Lewis County detectives will be conducting a joint investigation with Pierce County.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, all the detectives who worked the case have retired and answers aren’t expected be coming any time soon, according to detective Ed Troyer of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.<\/p>\n

“Right now, we’re just pulling records, seeing what we have,” Troyer said today.<\/p>\n

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department is aware this could be tied to other things and they will be checking with other agencies, checking on other homicides, he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got to be careful, it’s still an ongoing investigation, if we’ve got a suspect out there, that’s yet to be determined,” he said.<\/p>\n

One case they will look at is another couple killed around the same time, according to Troyer.<\/p>\n

According to an item on the web site for the television show Unsolved Mysteries<\/a> – which aired an episode on Robertson’s homicide in 1989 – just 15 miles away, a man named Stephen Harkins had been found in his sleeping bag, shot in the forehead; and his companion Ruth Cooper was found two months later, shot to death.<\/p>\n

Lewis County’s Chief Brown said today, one of those victims had a ligature, like a sock, that was similar to one found with the body of Diana K. Robertson.<\/p>\n

While it’s good Riemer was found, it still doesn’t bring a whole lot of new information to light, Brown said.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully someone, somewhere, knows something and will call us,” she said.<\/p>\n

Brown asks anyone with information about the case to call the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office at 360-748-9286 or Lewis County Crime Stoppers at 1-800- 748-6422.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter CHEHALIS – Learning the identity of the man whose skull was found recently near Mineral now means revisiting decades-old cases, including a missing person, a stabbing death and possibly the homicides of another couple. The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office this morning said the skull discovered\u00a0 March […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-5889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5889"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5898,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5889\/revisions\/5898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}