Nearly a week after what appeared to be human remains were discovered in the area of U.S. 1 and Kitterman Road, few details have been brought to light.
Yes, the remains appear to be human. Yes, the Medical Examiner’s Office is examining the bones. Yes, the Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
But not much more is being offered.
A spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner’s Office in Fort Pierce said the office hasn’t been able to learn much from the remains. They haven’t been able to discern anything from what remains were collected.
“We can’t tell you a gender,” said Chief Deputy Garry Wilson last week. “We can’t tell you an age. We can’t tell you any of that because it’s still early in the process of recovering the remains.”
Wilson spoke to reporters on the scene last Thursday. That press briefing was then shared on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. It was the last post (as of press time) regarding the investigation.
The Medical Examiner’s Office said it might send the remains out to another lab to see if DNA can be collected. As it is, there is nothing available to the office that would give officials an ID for the remains.
A construction crew working on the property made the discovery – that of a skull – which prompted the call to authorities.
Investigators spent at least two days last week combing the property searching for other body parts.
Wilson said that animals got involved, “moved things around,” which is why the body was not found fully intact.
“We’re not going to finish until we’re certain we got everything we can get,” Wilson said late last week of searching for more remains. He would not speculate how much of the body had been recovered or what other parts need be found, noting he did not want to interrupt the techs.
Investigators cleared the scene last Thursday and are no longer searching the property.
Wilson said there were no obvious signs of trauma from what investigators had seen so far. He added that it was not known if the remains had originally been buried or if they had sunk into the ground over time.
Investigators have been checking missing person reports to see if they could make a match between the remains and a report. As of press time, no such match had been made.
Wilson said the area has been known to be a place for homeless camps, but could not say definitively that the remains were those of a homeless person.
