DNA test may put 15-year-old case to rest

When John Seel drowned in Flathead Lake in 1989, and even when his suspected remains were found two years later, DNA testing was not a part of Montana's investigative ability.

Now, Seel's case may be put to rest.

"He fell out of a boat and drowned in 1989," Sheriff Jim Dupont said.

Seel and friends were fishing on May 3, 1989, near Wayfarers State Park on the lake, Dupont said.

The wind whipped up a wave that half-filled the boat; a second wave did the job and the boat rolled.

Seel clung to the bow of the boat and finally succumbed to the cold water, Dupont said. He remembers flying over the lake in the search for Seel's body. The search was eventually canceled.

Two years later, two men on a motorcycle found human remains near the mouth of the Flathead River. Red clothing with the remains seemed to match apparel that Seel reportedly wore when he drowned, and officials believed they had recovered his body.

Tissue samples and bones went to the state crime lab as usual. From there, they were transferred to the University of Montana, which has a forensic science program. They remained there for years.

Now, the university wants to clean out some of its old evidence, officials said.

The Seel case offers an opportunity to check definitively whether the body found two years after a drowning is who officials believe it is.

A DNA test, using a family member of Seel's, could do that, Dupont said.

Although Dupont's not willing to pay for the test in what he considers to be a closed case, he will approve a DNA case if someone wants to do it.

Thursday, sheriff's detective Pat Walsh was running down old information on the case, now archived.

Dupont said he doesn't know if a death certificate was ever issued in Seel's death. If not, it could happen in a conclusive way now, nearly two decades later.