SPALDING COUNTY, Ga. — A person riding a 4-wheeler near a creek on Sunday afternoon spotted what turned out to be human remains.
"On Sunday night, a gentleman and his girlfriend were riding a four-wheeler in the area that they normally ride in," explained Spalding County Sheriff Dix. "The gentleman’s girlfriend looked over and saw what she thought was a ball, like a volleyball or something, over in the brush and thought it was odd that it was there."
When she got off the four-wheeler and walked over to it, she realized it was a skull. After making the discover, the two got back on the vehicle and called authorities.
The next day investigators with the Spalding County Sheriff's Office went to location, described by Dix as a clean-cut area, near the intersection of Jackson Road and Wallace Road along the Butts County line and found the human skull.
Photos: This is where human remains were found
At the same time, strong thunderstorms moved through the area, which prevented investigators from completely processing the scene. But they returned the following morning with archeological investigators and cadaver dogs from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
During their search of the area, investigators found additional human remains, including a pelvic bone, femur, and a few vertebrae amd ribs. They also found clothing and a shoe, but no form of identification and no indicators as to what caused the death.
Sheriff Dix believes the bones were there for at least one to two years. The sheriff said they have also started gathering missing persons cases in the area, as right now, they don't have any indication that the body had been dumped there.
The remains were taken to the GBI Crime Lab for further examination and determination of race and sex. The Sheriff's Office is waiting on the preliminary report from the GBI in hopes that dental records and DNA can help identify the person.
"That is still somebody's loved one that’s out there," Dix said. "That is somebody's son or father or mother or daughter, and we still need to find out who they are so we can get some closure to their loved one. Because somebody somewhere is missing them."
The sheriff noted how rare it is to make finds like this.
"Very rarely there is an incident that occurs for you find something like this and it does turn out to be human," he said.
While the sheriff said they don't have any indication yet that there was foul play, they're not ruling anything out yet. The investigation continues.
