A pair of hikers in Washington state discovered the skeletal remains of a missing mother of three who was last known to be picking mushrooms with a strange man before Thanksgiving in 2024.
Hailey Athay, 33, was confirmed as the person found in a remote area of Kelso, Washington on Sunday after two hikers stumbled across two bones and a piece of clothing, the Cowlitz Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.
The grim discovery was made just north of the Oregon border.
Because of the time of day, officials couldn’t journey out to Athay’s resting site until the next day, but asked the hikers to snap a photo of the bones that was later sent to a forensic anthropologist.
The bones were confirmed as human and the next day one of the hikers led a search party off officials to the undisclosed area off Rose Valley Road where they recovered even more bones.
“Nearly complete skeletal remains were located as well as multiple items of clothing and personal belongings,” the sheriff’s office said.
Sheriff’s office officials confirmed the area had been identified as “an area of interest” in Athay’s disappearance, but previous searches had resulted in zero discoveries.
Officials sent the skull to a forensics lab that confirmed the remains belonged to Athay by comparing dental records of the missing mother.
Athay was reported missing by her family in January 2025, over a month after she last talked to her mother, Nicole Brooks, from a store just before Thanksgiving in 2024.
Brooks says her daughter told her she “was doing well” and was with a man the mother didn’t know, Fox 13 Seattle reported.
Athay had told a friend she was going to pick mushrooms with the man before her disappearance, according to the outlet.
“I can hear her—‘Hi, Mama’—and it just breaks my heart that I won’t hear that again,” Brooks told KPTV.
News of her daughter’s death did not surprise Brooks but still left her distraught.
“It’s not that it was unexpected that this would be the outcome, but it certainly isn’t what we wanted in our hearts,” she said. “It was a nightmare. It was just a nightmare. You don’t know, and you hold out hope—and the longer it goes, the harder it is.”
Athay’s cause and manner of death were not revealed as officials continue to investigate her disappearance, the sheriff’s office said.
She leaves behind three daughters who are now living with family members.
No criminal charges have been announced in Athay’s death.
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