PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Authorities identified the human remains found last month near Chinook Landing Marine Park in Fairview.
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday the skeletal remains found May 20 near Northeast 223rd Avenue and Northeast Marine Drive belonged to Tiffany Bettis.
Bettis, who was also known as Melinda Smith, was reported missing more than 4 years ago when she was 43 years old.
A criminal investigation into the remains is ongoing. Authorities have not released a cause of death.
KOIN 6 News previously reported Bettis was last seen at the Quality Inn in Gresham on March 2, 2015.
Her sister, Mona Dotson, said Bettis bought a house in Fairview in the early 2000s.
“Then later, when she met her husband, they also had a home in Roseburg. That was their primary residence,” Dotson said. “Then when she would come up to visit family, they would stay at the house in Fairview.”
Dotson said her sister left behind 3 elementary-age children. Many people told investigators they don’t believe she would have left her children willingly. Investigators at the time said foul play had not been ruled out in her disappearance.
“She would often say that I would never leave my kids,” Dotson said in 2018. “So for her to go missing, for her to leave on her own accord, that doesn’t make sense to me at all. It doesn’t sit right with me. And I know that was some of the initial, well, she just left, ran away — I don’t see that.”