Skeleton's identity a mysteryBy CHAUNCEY ROSS, chauncey@indianagazette.net
Published: Sunday, January 18, 2009 1:40 AM EST
For each answer forensic investigators have found, they've generated another new question about the skeletal remains found last month in a remote section of North Mahoning Township.
The signs so far show the bones are those of a black woman who was in her 30s and died between three and 10 years ago, Indiana County Coroner Michael Baker said Saturday. She apparently had been shot in the back of her head and had been dismembered.
Investigators still don't know who she was. Or who did this to her.
''I don't have anything to say that I believe it was a gang - it could just be an isolated incident,'' Baker said ``But when you hear people talk about executional type killings, that's what you think of. But I couldn't say for sure that's what we're dealing with. It could have been a domestic, a robbery, God only knows.''
Where the woman came from also is anybody's guess.
''What it makes me think is that this did not occur at the place where the body was found - that it occurred somewhere else, dismemberment took place and it was dumped,'' Baker said.
A worker stumbled upon the remains Dec. 29 as he prepared to drill a water well about one to two miles east of Route 119 between Covode and Juneau, according to Baker. He said a smooth round object caught the worker's eye about 10 feet from the dig spot. He kicked it and discovered it was the skull.
State police from Punxsutawney and Baker are jointly investigating. They collected the skull, jaw bone, several long bone and some vertebral bones.
They also found a partial upper denture. Then they sent the remains to a forensic anthropologist, Dr. Dennis Dirkmaat, of Mercyhurst College in Erie, for study.
More study will be required to confirm the estimates of the victim's age and when she died, according to Baker. And they still have avenues to search for her identity, such as dental records. DNA will be checked, too.
DNA, like dental records, requires that you have some idea who the victim is,'' Baker said. ''You have to have something to compare.''
''The next step would be either to solicit help from the public or to compare this through databases of missing persons.''
Baker said the military compiles DNA records, and courts require people convicted of serious offenses to be sampled.
He also said the forensic investigators might be able to generate an image of what the victim's face looked like.
''Some of the things that may be helpful down the line would be to look at instrument or tool patterns. Some of the long bones were sawed through. We could look at striations and tool marks to determine ... what kind of tool or instrument had been used. That could be helpful down the line.''State police at Punxsutawney referred questions to the station's public relations officer, who was not available.''
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