DNA found on skull a match for missing Redmond woman

SEATTLE – Advances in DNA technology have allowed experts to determine that a partial skull found 12 years ago belonged to an 18-year-old Washington woman who vanished in 1990.

King County sheriff’s Sgt. Cindi West said the case of Erin MacGregor, of Redmond, has been classified as a suspicious death, likely a homicide. West said there are no suspects.

MacGregor was last seen at her boyfriend’s house on Sept. 19, 1990. A King County sheriff’s deputy ran her license plate that day in Federal Way.

Her car was found in a Seattle apartment parking lot several weeks later.

West said two men looking for deer antlers near Interstate 90 in east King County found the skull in 2001, but labs were unable to extract DNA.

In March, detectives sent the partial skull to a lab that offered advanced DNA testing. The lab succeeded in extracting its DNA. The King County medical examiner’s office was able to provide a tissue sample from the autopsy of MacGregor’s deceased mother that aided in the identification.