After nearly three decades of uncertainty and grief, the cold case surrounding the disappearance and death of Jeffrey Klungness, a once-bright youth lost to violent circumstances, has reached a somber resolution. Jeffrey's skeletal remains were discovered by chance in the unforgiving terrain of unincorporated Pierce County, unveiling the grim final chapter of a life cut tragically short.
Originally reported by the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, the fragments of Jeffrey's story began to coalesce when, in October 2017, a shard of bone—ominous in its solitary and weathered condition—was found by mushroom pickers in the Greenwater area. Following intensive lab analysis and DNA comparisons with Jeffrey's kin, forensic scientists were able almost definitively to link the remains to the missing teenager.
Throughout the years, one name repeatedly arose in connection with the case: Martin Malcolm, a man previously convicted of violence and once close to the Klungness household, was the suspect whom investigators could never entirely clear from their inquiries. In a cruel twist of fate, the suspect passed away in August 2022, denying the family and community the opportunity for a trial or confession and forever sealing whatever truths remained unspoken.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office, working tirelessly to provide solace and closure through their scientific rigor, issued a report in March 2025 identifying the cause of Jeffrey Klungness's death as multiple blunt force injuries of the head and ruling the manner of death a homicide.
