BELLINGHAM, Wash. — A worker discovered human skeletal remains in a raised brushy area alongside southbound I-5 in Bellingham on June 17, 2025. Multiple agencies responded to investigate the scene and the remains.
The Washington State Patrol told Whatcom News that the body was located by a Department of Transportation worker who was doing maintenance in the area.
The Whatcom County Medical Examiner’s Office (ME) told Whatcom News that the decedent was identified as Justin Howard, age 43. The ME said the cause of death is “undetermined cause of death in skeletonized remains” and the manner of death is undetermined. How the remains ended up at the location found is also unknown.
Next of kin has been notified.
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If that picture is where he was found, and I’m assuming it was considering they cleared that area not after, a couple months prior to him being found, I was flying a sign on the Lakeway sb ramp, and there was a man, possibly that age, yelling at me from literally right where that pic was taken, he was begging me to buy him alcohol…. Idk if he had money or not, but after saying no several times, I had to tell him that I didn’t even have ID and if he didn’t stop I was gonna call my husband and have him come out there, which I did do, but I told him nvmd cuz he did stop. He was there for a couple days, I only know cuz I heard him. Then I never heard him again. I never went up there. And I never smelled anything. I feel like I would have. It’d be nice to know approximately how long he had been dead.
Not *long* after,