06:06 PM PDT on Friday, October 22, 2004

By ABE ESTIMADA, kgw.com Staff

ESTACADA – Portland police investigating the disappearance of a local lawyer found the body of an adult in a rural area of Clackamas County on Friday morning.

Douglas Swanson.

Police are not sure if the body is that of Douglas Alan Swanson, who has been missing since Tuesday night from the 900 block of Belmont in southeast Portland, said Sgt. Brian Schmautz of the Portland Police Bureau. After making a cell phone call, he hasn't been heard from since.

The discovery of the body near Estacada has now triggered a homicide investigation by Portland police.

“There’s clear evidence that this is a homicide,” Schmautz said. “This body is part of a homicide investigation, but I can’t tell you with certainty the body is Mr. Swanson’s or someone else’s.”

Swanson, 51, is a partner in the law firm of Swanson, Thomas & Coon and handles personal injury and workers' compensation cases.

He has not returned home or reported to work since Tuesday night. Police have said his disappearance was suspicious because of “the evidence that was almost immediately available” and the way he vanished, Schmautz said.

KGW

A deputy's car blocks the Clackamas County logging road on the way to the area where a body was found.

Schmautz would not say what evidence they’ve found, where the body was found exactly, or what led Portland investigators to the remote area accesible only through logging roads off Highway 224.

Investigators were at the crime scene throughout the day on Friday. An autopsy will be conducted by the Clackamas County Medical Examiner.

Swanson is described as six feet tall, weighing 180 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a brown sweater, leather jacket and dark pants.

Swanson’s family thanked the Portland police and the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office for their work in the case and asked for privacy.

“They hope for the safe return of their beloved husband, father and friend,” the family said in a statement released Friday.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)