Body found in Oregon identified as missing tsunami victim

2011-04-12 23:23:20 GMT+7 (ICT)

SALEM (BNO NEWS) -- A body found along a beach in Oregon earlier this month has been positively identified as a missing U.S. tsunami victim, Oregon State Police confirmed on Tuesday.

Dustin Douglas Weber, 25, was reported missing on March 11 when he was making photographs of a tsunami near the mouth of the Klamath River in Del Norte County in California. He reportedly wanted to make photographs of the tsunami, which was generated by a large earthquake off Japan.

Weber's body was found on April 2 at approximately 8.30 a.m. local time when a person walking on the beach reported finding the remains which were subsequently taken to the Oregon State Medical Examiner's Office in Portland for positive identification.

Dr. Chris Young at the Medical Examiner's Office said Weber was positively identified by a forensic odontologist using dental records. His next of kin and the Del Norte County Sheriff's Office have since been notified.

The tsunami on March 11 was the result of a 9.0-magnitude earthquake that struck off northeastern Japan, killing at least 13,200 people and leaving more than 14,300 others missing in Japan. In addition to the fatality in the United States, one person was also killed in Indonesia.

Weber is the first person to be killed on the U.S. West Coast as a result of a tsunami since March 1964, when more than a dozen people were killed when a large tsunami struck parts of the U.S. coastline. The waves were generated as a result of an enormous 9.2-magnitude earthquake in southeastern Alaska.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-04-12

And here he is -- RIP.

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