More bones found in Dedham Personal effects also uncovered

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DEDHAM – Investigators found more human bones Tuesday as they resumed their efforts to identify the partial human remains found last fall in the woods in a remote area of Dedham.

A team of investigators from the Maine State Police and the State Medical Examiner’s Office resumed their search Tuesday of a wooded area off the Jenkins Beach Road where last November a hunter found part of a human skull.

By about noontime, they had uncovered something.

The investigators quickly began photographing an object in the dirt where they had been digging.

“We found something of interest,” Detective Chris Coleman said at the scene.

Later they identified the items as additional human bones, according to Stephen McCausland, Department of Public Safety spokesman.

The searchers also discovered some personal effects at the site, but did not release details about those items or the bones.

Last fall, the hunter who discovered the skull led investigators back to the area where he thought he had found the piece of the skull, Coleman said. A search of the area over two days uncovered some bones of a foot and some other material a short distance away before winter weather forced investigators to halt the search.

Tuesday, searchers began by clearing the densely wooded area so that investigators would have room to work, Coleman said. Searchers cleared an area between the two sites where evidence previously had been found, and planned to search that area initially in an effort to find other remains or materials that will help them identify the body, he said.

Last fall, Dr. Marcella Sorg, a forensic anthropologist from the University of Maine in Orono, determined that the skull had been in the woods for roughly 10 years and that it had belonged to someone in their teens or 20s.

Although some reports have indicated that the remains may belong to a woman, Coleman was cautious in speculating on any aspect of the investigation and indicated that the sex of the deceased had not been established.

Wearing bug netting, Sorg was at the scene Tuesday, along with Dr. Edward David of the Medical Examiner’s Office and seven detectives. Sorg also was cautious in her comments to reporters and declined to discuss the condition of the bones that had been found while the investigation is still open. Investigators don’t have a lot to go on right now, she said.

“We don’t have a lot of remains,” Sorg said.

She said the delay of six months in searching for remains would not hinder the case much, noting that that amount of time would not affect body parts much at this point.

“Once the soft tissue is gone, the changes in the body take place very slowly,” she said.

Coleman said there had been no soft tissue on any of the remains found, and he added that although investigators had uncovered other material besides bones last fall, none of their discoveries had helped in identifying the body.

“At this point, personal effects might be as helpful as finding bones,” Coleman said.

Coleman declined to speculate on the cause of death, stressing that the evidence they have so far has not given them an indication as to how the individual died.

“It could be homicide, it could be a natural death, it could be self-inflicted. It could be a number of different things,” Coleman said. “We’re trying to find more evidence so we can determine what the circumstances were.”

The process at the site is much like that at an archaeological site. Investigators dig into the topsoil, working initially near where the foot bones were discovered last fall. The soil removed from the site is sifted through a screen while searchers examine the screened material and what remains in the screen in search of evidence.

“Some of the bones we’re looking for are very small,” Coleman said. “It’s a tedious process.”

The site slopes slightly and there is a ravine nearby, Coleman said, noting that water or animals could have spread the remains beyond the initial search site. Although there is a preliminary plan to search beyond the immediate search area, Coleman said, any expansion of the search site would depend upon what investigators find at the site.

Searchers also are utilizing forensic mapping equipment, similar to a surveyor’s transit, at the search site. The mapping equipment uses a laser and a method of triangulation to create a three-dimensional contour map of the site, according to State Trooper Kyle Willette.

The map allows the investigators to create a diagram so they can pinpoint specific locations of where they find items at the site, Coleman said.

The team of searchers expected to be at the site all day Tuesday and, according to Coleman, would continue the search for “as long as it takes.”

“We’ll take as long as we need to satisfy ourselves that there’s nothing left out here,” he said.

In addition to the work at the search site, detectives have been working with the State Medical Examiner’s Office, combing through missing-persons lists in Maine and throughout the country. Early in the investigation, they sent information to law enforcement agencies throughout the United States seeking information that could be helpful.

“It’s a very large world out there,” Coleman said. “We can’t just focus on Maine.”

Investigators hope that publicity about their search might generate more information from the general public.

Anyone with information about the case can contact the Maine State Police at 866-2121 or (800) 432-7381.