“We are struggling to find the material to do comparisons and we are currently trying to locate dental records,” Harshbarger said.
He said his office has been in communication with the family of the suspected person. He declined to name the suspected person because the identification has not been confirmed.
A 911 caller last week said bones were found near an AES Ohio right of way in the 4900 block of Covenant House Drive, according to Montgomery County Regional Dispatch records. The caller said he was part of a two-member crew clearing out the right of way for AES Ohio behind Garden Court assisted living facility at 4911 Covenant House Drive.
In addition to multiple officers from the Trotwood Police Department, members of the Ohio chapter of Texas EquuSearch urban search and recovery team based in Cincinnati responded to assist investigators.
Authorities said the remains appeared to have been there for an extended period of time.
Dr. Heather Walsh-Hanney, a forensic anthropologist at Flordia Gulf Coast University, said there are different ways an investigator can determine how long a body has been decomposing.
“As human remains decompose outside, the environment is a very important factor in driving the speed of decomposition towards skeletonization,” Walsh-Hanney said. “The cooler the climate, the slower the process of decomposition.”
She said along with examining the remains, a forensic anthropologist could also work with other scientists to look at evidence like plants or insects in the area that may help determine how long the remains have been there.
Harshbarger said a skull and “general skeletal remains” were found at the scene. He said investigators have been able to determine that the remains belonged to a male.
The coroner said the most common way the office identifies remains is through visual identification, but there are multiple ways to identify remains after visual identification isn’t possible such as fingerprints, dental records or DNA samples, but those rely on having a pre-death sample.
“At this point, there is no timeline because we are down to trying to find a dentist,” he said. “It could be a very long time now.”
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