Mother Says Body of Former Southern Humboldt Man Believed to Have Been Murdered in Washington State During a Two Day Killing Spree Has Been Located

“There is still light,” says Liz Hilderbrand, mother of a former Southern Humboldt man, Josiah Hilderbrand, after receiving word that the body of her son–believed to have been a victim of a two day killing spree in Washington state–had probably been located. She said, “Dental records will confirm, but…we are 99% sure it is him. It will be a long road before he comes home, but that road has begun.”

According to a Washington State highway worker, he and his crew were working yesterday not long before noon about mile marker 53 on Hwy 97 near the town of Toppenish, Washington, when a co-worker on a large machine spotted a pile of bones off the road down a ravine about 30 to 40 yards.

One of the crew members went to check the situation out and discovered that the bones were with clothing and there were human skulls.

Tribal police, the local Sheriff’s Department, and eventually the FBI arrived at the scene.

On June 7 last year, Jo Hilderbrand and Jon Cleary headed to Washington state to see Dead & Company. They disappeared and the vehicle they were in was found abandoned and partially burned on June 8 in a rural part of Washington’s Yakima County. Inside the vehicle were bullet casings that matched the bullet casings found at the White Swan killings which occurred later the same day and about 15 miles from where the car was abandoned.

According to the Yakima Herald,

John Cagle, 59, Michelle Starnes, 51, Catherine Eneas-Squeochs, 49, Dennis Overacker, 61, and Thomas Hernandez, 36, were shot to death at a trailer in the 5100 block of Medicine Valley Road in White Swan…Donovan Cloud and James Dean Cloud remain jailed in connection with the case and face trial in U.S. District Court in Yakima in January 2021. Both were indicted on assault, kidnapping and carjacking charges; James Cloud was also indicted on first-degree murder charges in February.

In an earlier interview, Liz Hilderbrand explained that the two Cloud cousins (they call themselves brothers) are charged in connection with the five killed at White Swan but, she said, “No charges have been brought against anybody regarding Jon and Josiah’s disappearance.”

With the bodies of the two California men being located, charges could be coming soon.

In a video to Josiah’s supporters yesterday, Liz Hilderbrand said, “I feel like my part of the job is over. This has been my promise to [Jo]….What comes now is the job of the FBI.”

Hilderbrand has said that all she wants is to bring her son home. In an earlier interview, she told us, “I want him picked up with reverence and laid down with reverence..I don’t want the last handling of him to be violent.” She paused and then added, “I feel like it’s the only part of the story I can change.”

Now, thanks to alert highway workers, that part of the story has been changed and her son’s body will be brought to her and she can lay him down with reverence.

Earlier Chapters:

• Missing Under Suspicious Circumstances: A Mendocino Mother Searches for Her Only Son Who Was Raised Here in the Emerald Triangle
• $35,000 Reward Offered, in Part by the FBI, in Case of Missing Former Southern Humboldt Man