Remains found by hunters identified

A human skull and partial remains found recently on a mountainside northeast of Sandpoint belong to James Allen Ridley, last seen in Bonner County on April 27, 1998, authorities said Thursday.

The county Sheriff’s Office is investigating how Ridley, 52, died. Authorities are asking for the public’s help. The skull has a hole in it, but a sheriff’s investigator has said he couldn’t speculate on what caused the hole.

Ridley disappeared after leaving a “goodbye” note, the Sheriff’s Office said. He had been living with a friend for several years before he vanished.

A multistate records check produced a possible match between the remains and Ridley, who lived in Stephens County, Ga., until 1977. He was listed as deceased there, but his ex-wife told investigators Ridley fled the state that year owing a lot of child support.

The Sheriff’s Office used dental records from a retired Sandpoint-area dentist and a forensic odontologist to identify Ridley’s remains, which were found Oct. 11 by two people hunting elk off the Strawberry Mountain trail in the Grouse Creek area. The skull and various bones, along with leather hiking boots, clothing fabric and what was perhaps a gun holster, were found in dense timber.

Anyone in the Strawberry Mountain area in April 1998 who may know anything about the man’s disappearance is asked to call Lt. Gary Johnston at (208) 263-8417.

– From staff reports

Idaho

Midterm vote turnout highest since 1994

Voter turnout in the state was 62 percent for this year’s election, the highest turnout in a nonpresidential election since the GOP takeover in 1994, when 67 percent of Idaho voters went to the polls.

Bonner County posted the highest turnout of the four most northern counties, mirroring the state average of 62 percent, which was just a point shy of Secretary of State Ben Ysursa’s prediction. Kootenai County saw 58 percent of voters hand in a ballot, the same as Boundary County, though the county hadn’t yet factored in the number of voters who registered on Election Day.

Kootenai County elections manager Deedie Beard didn’t know how the 58 percent turnout compares with turnout for past elections, but she said the number of absentee ballots was a record for a nonpresidential election.

In Shoshone County, turnout was 56.76 percent, just short of the 57 percent who voted in 2002.

– Meghann M. Cuniff