Locating Body Deposition Sites of Murdered Missing Persons

This study examined 347 murdered persons cases from Oregon and Washington states from the period of 1952-2025 to develop an evidence-based system for prioritizing body deposition site (BDS) search areas. When individuals are reported missing and suspected of being murdered, investigators face the challenge of determining where to focus search efforts, particularly when the remains have been removed from the last known place (LKP) or place last seen (PLS). This research analyzed victim demographics, time to discovery, BDS types and methods, victim-perpetrator relationships, and critical distance measurements from the LKP/PLS to the BDS and from a Prominent Feature to the BDS. Results from the three distance measurements established search zones by developing a concentric circle search system for each distance category using Direct (Euclidean), Ground (road), and Prominent Feature distances. For the Direct distance calculation, 51% of the cases fell within 0.04 to 10.4 miles, 70% within 18.4 miles, and 30% were beyond 18.4 miles. For the Ground distance calculation, 51% of the cases fell within 0.04 to 14 miles, 68% within 24.5 miles, and 32% beyond 24.5 miles. Additionally, 50% of BDSs were found to be within 55 feet, 64% within 95.5 feet, and 36% beyond 95.5 feet of a Prominent Feature. These findings provide practical, statistically validated search zone parameters to more efficiently allocate investigative resources when searching for missing BDSs. Beta testing confirmed the reliability of the distance estimates, supporting their generalizability within similar geographic and demographic contexts.