Body Found On Squak Mountain

ISSAQUAH - King County police and the medical examiner's office will try to determine today if the body of a woman found on Squak Mountain yesterday is an Issaquah woman who disappeared almost a year ago.

The remains were discovered by a hiker around 5:30 p.m. in a ravine about a quarter-mile from the Issaquah-Hobart Road near Southeast 113th street.

Police stayed with the body overnight until officials from the medical examiner's office arrived after dawn today.

Police confirmed the body was human but said yesterday it was not clear whether the remains were of a lost hiker, a murder victim or a victim of some other circumstance.

Donna Barensten,59, disappeared while on a hike with her husband, Ron, last May 4.

At the time, Barensten told police he had walked slightly ahead of his wife.

When he lost track of her, he doubled back on the trail to find her.

Barensten later speculated his wife might have fallen into an abandoned coal-mine shaft.

He also said she suffered from dementia and would not be able to find her way home even if she was safe.

Police, assisted by mountain-rescue teams and other searchers looked for her for four days with no results.