Forensic anthropologist called in to investigate human remains found in North Union
A forensic anthropologist from Erie was called in to help police with the excavation of human skeletal remains found near a North Union Township home.
State police said they received information about a missing person and located the remains in the area of Washington Avenue and Hogsett Lane Tuesday afternoon.
While there are no neighboring homes, two people who live nearby said Wednesday the home where the remains were found is abandoned.
Heather Fowler lives above the area of the scene and said, to the best of her knowledge, no one has lived in the home since she moved into the area in 2014. Over the past decade, she said the only activity she无毛视频檚 seen in that area has been people dumping trash there.
She was concerned when police were called to the normally quiet neighborhood.
无毛视频淚 don无毛视频檛 know if someone did something to somebody there, or if someone took somebody back there after the fact,无毛视频� she said. 无毛视频淚t kind of freaked me out because I have three daughters.无毛视频�
Her neighbor, Bret Fowler, said he, too, knew of people dumping trash in the area and remembered hearing and seeing a group of girls running and screaming at each other a couple of weeks ago when he was out fixing his truck.
无毛视频淚 just sure hope it wasn无毛视频檛 one of those girls,无毛视频� he said.
Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele declined comment Wednesday, telling reporters the only thing he could reveal is that the scene was still being processed.
Dr. Dennis Dirkmaat, a forensic anthropologist from Mercyhurst University in Erie, was called in to help police handle the investigation.
Dirkmaat has worked on a handful of local cases over the years, including two Fayette County homicide cases that involved burned remains.
In 1999, Dirkmaat worked in Bear Rocks, Bullskin Township, excavating 2,200 bone fragments that belonged to Helen Gillin. Police believed Gillin was poisoned by her adoptive parents in 1992, and her body was burned in the family无毛视频檚 backyard fire pit.
Her adoptive parents were charged in the case, marking the first time in Fayette County anyone was charged with homicide when there was not a body.
Gillins无毛视频� adoptive father, James Gillin, was convicted of first-degree murder and her mother, Roberta, was acquitted after a trial.
Dirkmaat was again called on in 2003 when the burned remains of Danielle McManus were found in a van at a junkyard near her family无毛视频檚 Normalville home.
Dirkmaat无毛视频檚 examination helped lead to the second-degree murder conviction of McManus无毛视频� cousin, Brian Hays.
In 2010, he was called to investigate an area in North Union Township, off railroad tracks on Brushwood Road. There, police used information gleaned during their continuing investigation of a 2001 homicide to identify where portions of the body of Jerry Lee Cushey of Monongahela were located.
That investigation led to the conviction of three men无毛视频搊ne from Connellsville and two from Elizabeth.
In 2003, Dirkmaat was called in to consult on a case where Brian Keith Hays sexually assaulted, and then killed his cousin and burned her remains in a van in a Normalville junkyard.
And, in 2000, when the mummified remains of Ohio medical consultant Ira Swearingen were found in Greene County, Dirkmaat was again called in.
Swearingen was on his way to Uniontown Hospital to assist in a surgery in 1999 when he was kidnapped and killed by several people in Washington County.
Dirkmaat was able to determine that Swearingen无毛视频檚 skull fractures were caused when he was shot in the head.
Several people were convicted in that case.
In addition to state and Uniontown police, members of the Fayette County district attorney无毛视频檚 office and the coroner无毛视频檚 office are also taking part in the investigation.