EMMITSBURG,
Md. – Skeletal remains were found on a wooded parcel
of land between Route 15 and St. Anthony Road, just outside
Emmitsburg.
“We’re
handling this as a homicide until we find out differently,”
said Captain Tim Clarke with the sheriff’s office.
On
Feb. 29, realtor Jack Klingler, who declined to comment
on the on-going investigation, discovered the bones while
conducting a property survey and called 911 at 3:42 p.m.
When deputies arrived on the scene, they determined the
remains were possibly human and secured the area.
“We
also had deputies securing the scene overnight,” Clarke
said. “We knew about the body Friday, but because
we were expecting bad weather, we waited until Saturday
to investigate.”
From
9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, about 10 crime scene
technicians, detectives and deputies, worked the scene,
sifting through soil and sweeping the area for potential
clues or scattered bone fragments.
“Anytime
you have a body that’s decomposed, there’s the
possibility that small animals may have moved bones from
the original site. You have to look beyond that location,”
Clarke said.
Vigilant
Hose Company firefighters assisted with the search, including
Jim Click. Click said about 12 members of the company slowly
walked in a straight line through brush, trees and thorn
bushes looking for evidence.
“When
someone found something, they’d yell ‘stop.’
Then nobody moved until the detective with us checked it
out, marked it and said, ‘go,’” Click
explained. “We weren’t looking for every can
or bottle. We were looking for things like shoes or other
bones.” Click said they didn’t find “a
whole lot.”
A
bone expert with the Maryland Medical Examiner’s Office
determined that the bones were human.
An
autopsy was performed on Mar. 3, but the results are pending
and no information was available at press time, according
to the medical examiner’s office.
What
is known is that the “remains appear to have been
at the location for a long period of time,” according
to the Cpl. Jennifer Bailey, spokesperson for the Frederick
County Sheriff’s Office. Bailey said Detective Jeff
Norris attended the autopsy on Monday and was reviewing
information, but that the identity of the victim was still
unknown, as the “autopsy did not conclude that.”
“We’re
way behind the eight ball at this point unless we can get
an identification,” Clark said.
Ricci
Frey, who lives on Hemler Road, often rides his four-wheeler
through the wooded area where the remains were found and
said he learned of the discovery when police came to talk
to him.
“I
was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ We just
cut that trail the last time it snowed and they found the
body about a week later,” Frey said, pointing to a
trail that ran beside the site where the remains were found.
“For a while I really thought they had found the body
on the trail and I had been running over it and dug something
up.”
Frey
said he couldn’t recollect seeing the remains or anything
out of the ordinary prior to the discovery.
The
property where the remains were found is for sale and according
to the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation,
the 4.78 acres is owned by Michael Easton, who could not
be reached for comment.
