CATHLAMET, Wash. — The dead man at Pillar Rock had two intriguing items in his pocket. For the last seven months, Wahkiakum County Prosecutor and Coroner Dan Bigelow has been keeping that fact hidden away like an extra ace in his sleeve.

Despite Bigelow’s best efforts, the identity of the skeletal remains, discovered on the bank of the Columbia River near Altoona in May, has remained a mystery. So now, Bigelow is revealing new details and a Texas forensic artist’s new rendering in hopes of generating new leads.

“I had been keeping this information private, both because it may have been useful in eliminating false claims, which happens sometimes, and because by releasing it, I might be revealing the name of a relative of the deceased. But after six months with almost no movement in the case, I think it’s time to lay all my cards on the table,” Bigelow said in a statement.

When Bigelow first sought help from the public last spring, he described the middle-aged man’s height, clothing and shoes, and revealed only that he carried a lens cloth from a west Seattle optometrist in his pocket. Bigelow knew from previous experience that his fairly broad description would generate dozens of calls from detectives, other coroners and medical examiners, and regular people who were searching for their missing loved ones. He also knew it would be hard to give all those people hope, only to disappoint them later on.

“All these people are calling in, and I know that at most, I can give closure to one of them,” Bigelow said in an interview.

Bigelow’s press campaign did generate a flood of new possibilities, but gradually, they all dried up. By December, he knew he needed to somehow generate a whole new set of leads, so he could start the winnowing process all over again.

If Bigelow is the Prince Charming in this sad story, the new forensic drawing is the announcement for the ball, and the dead man’s tarnished keychain and ring are Bigelow’s version of a glass slipper.

A portrait on her website shows Austin forensic artist Natalie Murry sitting alone at a table in a black room, using a bleached skull to create a drawing of a fully-fleshed man. A former dispatcher and police officer, Murry developed the skills of a beat cop and investigator — interviewing, evidence-handling — before turning to the evolving field of forensic art. Now certified by the International Association for Identification, Murry has trained with the FBI, as well as a variety of experts in her field. Forensic artists have traditionally used standard artists’ mediums, like clay and charcoal pencils to reconstruct faces from remains and create time-progressions of missing persons, but Murry now specializes in using digital media — especially a tablet that allows her to turn drawings into computer files.

Murry freelances for law enforcement agencies all over the U.S., often using technology to interview witnesses and victims and complete her composites from a distance. She frequently works with the Seattle Police and King County Medical Examiner’s Office, and it was through this connection that she was asked to create a likeness of the Pillar Rock man.

Late last year, Washington State Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Kathy Taylor — who is working with Bigelow on the identification effort — asked Murry to help with five unresolved Washington cases. In December, Murry went to Seattle, where she photographed the remains of each person.

“As always, each had their individual challenges and interesting details,” Murry wrote in a blog post. In addition to the Wahkiakum County case, Murry’s Washington cases included a mixed-race woman found recently near Highway 18 in King County, and a middle-aged white man found in a sleeping bag under a tree in Pend Oreille County, whose bone abnormalities indicated that “he had lived with a great deal of pain for some time.” It was not the first time Murry had worked on a local case — in 2014, she created a rendering of a Native American woman who was killed in a fiery Cowlitz County crash while hitchhiking with a truck driver more than 20 years ago.

Murry’s rendering shows a man with wide-set solemn eyes, a broad forehead, and a slightly asymmetrical oval-shaped face. In an email to Bigelow, Murry explained that for some reason, the right side of the man’s jaw was larger than the left side, giving his face its slightly crooked appearance.

“The other thing that she said was interesting — and Dr. Taylor confirmed this — was that some of his dental work, which was quite good, had additional cavities, sometimes on the same tooth right next to it,” Bigelow said. The newer cavities seem like a possible indication that during the final years of his life, the man stopped going to the dentist.

“Maybe he lost his job. Maybe he stopped caring,” Bigelow conjectured.

It’s both tempting, and dangerous, for an investigator to imagine a narrative about their subject, but it’s hard not to think that this man somehow fell on hard times, or became a stranger in his own life before he died — and the two items he kept in his pocket seem to play right into that theory. The first is a small, rectangular keychain with a tarnished brass finish. Engraved on its surface is a simple cartoon drawing of a smiling girl with pigtails, and one word: “DEBBIE”. The second is a ring with a cheap black stone set in it that appears to have belonged to either a small woman or a child. The snapped-off top of the keychain and the scratches on the ring’s stone suggest that the man carried the items for sentimental reasons, and had been doing so for a long time.

“It’s important not to read too much into things,” Bigelow said in his statement, “But it doesn’t seem like a giant leap to imagine the decedent knew and cared for someone named Debbie, maybe a daughter.”

Bigelow is cautiously hopeful that Debbie, whoever she is, could be the key to finding the man’s identity.

“This is a guy who wasn’t carrying keys or ID, but he was carrying a tag on him,” Bigelow reflected. “The idea at this point is to get as many eyes on him, and as many ideas as possible, because my play-it-close-to-the-vest theory totally crapped out.”

• The dead man at Pillar Rock was male, Caucasian, probably about 5’8”, and anywhere between 30 to 60 years old.

• He was dressed for the outdoors in size 10 Vibram-soled boots, a red button-down shirt, Levi’s jeans with a 38-inch waist, 32-inch inseam, and black rain pants.

• He probably did not die where his remains were found. He could have disappeared in any area with a body of water that feeds into the Columbia River, whether in Washington or Oregon.

• He most likely went missing somewhere between the west side of Cascade Locks and eastern Wahkiakum County.

Anyone with information should contact Wahkiakum County Prosecutor and Coroner Dan Bigelow at 360-795-3652, or by email at dbigelow@waprosecutors.org.