Discovered bones believed to be human

CELINA - The bones found on Sunday in a state park about 1.5 miles south of the city are likely human, experts believe, though no official confirmation has yet been made, Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon.

"If it does turn out that they are human bones, that's somebody's family member," Grey said. "Somebody's out there searching for somebody, and we have to do everything we can to determine who it is and find out what happened."

If the bones are human, the case would be pursued as a homicide or murder investigation until proven otherwise, Grey said.

Mercer County, he added, has no missing person reports or cold cases at this time.

"If it is a person, we don't know who it might be," Grey said. "If it is confirmed that they're human bones, obviously we'll reach out to surrounding counties."

"It's kind of odd that somebody would be in that location," Grey noted. "It's kind of odd that, at least to our knowledge, nobody's been reported missing."

Local and state agents aided by a cadaver dog are continuing their search today for additional evidence related to the bones found near Coldwater Creek at Grand Lake. So far, investigators have found "quite a few" bones as well as other evidence.

Some bones, in Grey's opinion, "look like they would be animal bones, not human bones."

"They weren't all laying in one spot like a skeleton," Grey said.

Montgomery County Coroner's Office doctors, Grey said, viewed one of the bones on Monday and "believe there is a high probability that it was a human bone," Grey said. Furthermore, an expert at an unspecified out-of-state university reviewed pictures of the bones.

"From pictures, she concluded that there was a very high probability of these bones being human," he said, pointing out the expert, recommended by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, hasn't yet examined the actual bones.

Grey said five BCI crime scene agents, five sheriff's deputies and two Ohio Department of Natural Resources employees are searching for more evidence on state-owned land, east of U.S. 127, near the southeast corner of the mouth of Coldwater Creek where many people fish.

They will "stay out there until we are sure that we've combed that area and we've got anything out there that could be important to us later on," Grey said.

Water was pumped from a nearby ditch and officials plan to apply heat to frozen ground to aid in their exhaustive search.

"Obviously daylight is important for the search that they're doing," Grey said, noting investigators are in no hurry. "If we try to search at night, we're going to miss something."

Upon conclusion of the search, officials will transport the bones to the expert, Grey said. Her name and the university's are being withheld to allow for unimpeded examination.

"My understanding is the expert at the university will be able to estimate a time frame for us, but at this point we don't know," Grey said. "My understanding is she'll be able to determine definitively whether it's human or not."

He's unsure if the cause of death can be determined and said the process should go fairly quickly.

Any human DNA from the bone would be entered into national and state databases, Grey said, who pointed out that U.S. 127 stretches from Michigan to Florida.

"So it could be local or it could be somebody passing through the area," he said.

A woman walking her dog near the state park found what she believed were possibly human bones on Sunday and notified the sheriff's office at 2:43 p.m, according to audio from the call released Wednesday afternoon.

ODNR officers, sheriff's deputies and the county coroner responded to the scene. The bones were found in an area where people sometimes dump deer carcasses and were initially thought to belong to such an animal.

But some bones raised suspicion among the coroner and the deputies, some of whom hunt, Grey said.

That's when officials decided to look further into the matter and delivered a bone to the Montgomery County Coroners Office, which does most autopsies and forensic work for Mercer County, Grey said.

Knowing the bone was potentially human, deputies returned to the scene and started searching for other evidence, Grey said.

After meeting with Mercer County Prosecutor Matt Fox, officials then conferred with Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's office, which put them in touch with the bone expert.

BCI agents arrived Tuesday to assist in the investigation.

"The search out at the scene is being led by BCI. That was at our request and ODNR's request simply because, again, that's what they do, so we want to take some direction from them, make sure we get it right," Grey said. "The agency that's actually responsible for the investigation, if it does turn out to be human remains, will be the sheriff's office."

BCI and ODNR will contribute their resources to the sheriff's office, Grey said.

"And we'll be following up pretty much as a joint, three-way project between all of us because it's critical to all of us that we get it right," he said.