Police investigate body found in Columbia River

LEWISTON – Police in Oregon say they have contacted the family of Moscow City Councilor John Dickinson, who has been missing since January, to let them know a medical examiner is trying to identify a body found in the Columbia River.

“Mr. Dickinson is still considered missing,” Oregon State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings told the Lewiston Tribune. “We did contact his family, but they’re aware there’s been no positive identification.”

The badly decomposed body of an adult male was found Thursday by a fisherman in the Columbia River near the mouth of the John Day River, police said.

The Gilliam County medical examiner in Oregon was working to identify the body, according to police.

Dickinson, 62, hasn’t been seen since he stopped his car Jan. 7 to help another driver whose car had crashed on an Oregon bridge over the John Day River. A third vehicle crashed into Dickinson’s car.

Authorities say Dickinson might have jumped over a concrete rail in an attempt to get out of the way, not realizing in the dark that he was plunging into the river 35 feet below.

His position on the City Council has remained open since his disappearance.

Dickinson entered politics in 2003 after retiring from a 29-year career as a professor and chairman of the University of Idaho’s computer science department.

Dickinson’s interest in running for office was sparked by the case of one of his students, Saudi Arabian exchange student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen. He was accused of aiding terrorists in a high-profile case that ended with an acquittal on the most serious charges. Dickinson viewed the case as the persecution of an innocent man by overzealous government agents after Sept. 11, 2001, friends said earlier this year.

Besides politics, Dickinson also became involved in community theater after his retirement, helping found Sirius Idaho Theatre.

He took up acting – his first role was as a professor and father of the main character in “Proof ” – and worked on set design, production and publicity.

A board member there said Dickinson regularly turned over his City Council paycheck to Sirius Idaho Theatre.

The theater dedicated a production of “Touch” to Dickinson after his disappearance.

That play, already in the works when he went missing, deals with the wrenching loss that friends and family suffer when a woman vanishes.