Loggers working deep in the Tillamook State Forest stumbled onto a wrecked Jeep Wrangler tucked against a stand of trees off Highway 6, and inside it, human remains that investigators believe may belong to two Beaverton friends who vanished nearly a year ago. Eddie Curtis Hair, 67, and Scott Jon Smith, 68, have not been seen since September 2025, and the discovery in the Jones Creek area of Tillamook County marks the biggest break yet in a case that has confounded family and detectives for eleven months.
According to KOIN.com, the vehicle's condition and location are consistent with a motor vehicle crash, per the Tillamook County Sheriff's Office. Investigators say the Jeep appears to have driven off the road and careened down a steep hillside, scattering debris throughout the surrounding area before coming to rest against trees. The wreckage sustained significant damage, according to the sheriff's office.
Officials have not officially confirmed the identities of the remains, and the Tillamook County Sheriff's Office says investigators are awaiting the appropriate examination and identification process. Still, per the sheriff's office, investigators believe the remains may be those of Hair and Smith, and officials have said no additional information will be released until official identification is completed.
A Trip That Never Ended
Hair and Smith, both of Beaverton, were believed to be preparing for an outdoor trip when they were last seen, and may have planned to search for rare rocks on the Oregon coast or in central Oregon, per the same account. Beaverton Police case logs list the pair as missing since September 13, 2025, with a last confirmed sighting in Beaverton on September 21, 2025, under Case #25-2750435, according to the Beaverton Police Department. Relatives grew concerned when the two men failed to return from what was expected to be a planned outing to the coast or central Oregon.
The department later said the men were last known to be traveling in a red 2005 Jeep Wrangler bearing Oregon license plate 494 QKW, a description that was widely circulated across Oregon missing-persons networks in the months that followed. Beaverton Police held a dedicated missing-persons press conference roughly two months after Hair and Smith vanished, appealing for public leads after initial regional searches turned up no trace of the men, with Detective Dan Maurer assigned as lead investigator to coordinate tips with coastal law enforcement.
Why the Wreck Went Unseen for Months
The Jones Creek area sits roughly 22 miles east of Tillamook along Highway 6, deep inside the 364,000-acre Tillamook State Forest, according to the Tillamook Forest Center. Steep canyon ravines, dense Douglas-fir canopy, and unreliable cell coverage define the Oregon Department of Forestry-managed corridor along the Wilson River, conditions that help explain how a vehicle could tumble down an embankment and remain hidden from passing motorists for nearly a year. The gravel bars near Jones Creek are also a well-known regional draw for rockhounds seeking carnelian, agate, and jasper, replenished each winter by high river flows, per RockHoundR — a detail that lines up with the men's reported plans before they disappeared.
Highway 6 itself carries a documented history of danger. Oregon Route 6 recorded seven traffic fatalities in 2021, matching the total number of fatal crashes on the highway during the entire five-year span from 2016 through 2020, prompting state lawmakers to pass a mandatory safety study through House Bill 4053, according to OPB. The Oregon Department of Transportation has described the Coast Range stretch of Highway 6 as a narrow, twisting two-lane corridor marked by steep grades, sharp blind curves, minimal shoulders, landslides, and winter weather hazards. Separately, Oregon State Police records show another fatal crash occurred near milepost 30 in Tillamook County in September 2025, the same month Hair and Smith went missing, shutting the highway down for hours during that investigation, per the Tillamook County Pioneer.
The Search Terrain That Slowed Answers
Single-vehicle lane departures account for a significant share of serious and fatal crashes on rural Oregon mountain highways, according to Oregon Department of Transportation crash analysis, underscoring how a vehicle leaving the roadway on a corridor like Highway 6 can end in tragedy far from view. Coastal Oregon search and rescue operations increasingly depend on thermal imaging drones, tracking dogs, and heavy rescue vehicles to cope with the steep, heavily forested terrain of Tillamook County, as Hoodline has previously reported. Even with that specialized equipment, it ultimately took logging crews working the forest, not organized search teams, to find the wreckage.
The Tillamook County Sheriff's Office says the investigation remains ongoing, and officials have reiterated that official identification must be completed before any additional details are released. For now, the case that began with two Beaverton men failing to return from a rockhounding trip rests with the medical examiner, as families and detectives who have waited eleven months for answers wait a little longer for certainty.
