After Seven Years of Searching, Missing Woman’s Remains Found in Tillamook County Woods

TILLAMOOK COUNTY, Ore. — The Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office confirms that human remains found in a wooded area near her home this year are those of Maria Del Carmen Quintana (59) who went missing in 2018.

The woman was last seen alive on November 30, 2018, in the Tillamook County area of the Nehalem/Highway 53.

Large-scale searches by the Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue (SAR) Team, assisted by the woman’s family members, failed to reveal her whereabouts.

Her partial remains were discovered in a heavily wooded area not far from her home on May 28, 2025.

TCSO Detectives immediately conducted a cursory search of the site, while search dogs were later deployed for a more thorough search of the area. However, no additional remains or evidence were recovered.

Tillamook Sheriff Joshua Brown thanked SAR volunteers, deputies, and members of the community who, he said, never stopped searching for Maria.

“We hope this provides some form of closure,” says Sheriff Brown on the TCSO Facebook platform.