Possible human remains found in county

December 21, 2010

Officials with the Howard County Sheriff's Office are investigating the discovery of what may be part of a human skull Monday morning in the northern part of the county.

According to Sheriff Stan Parker, his office received a tip regarding the item around 11 a.m. Monday, but declined to go into detail as to the location of the find.

“All I can say right now is it was found at a location in northern Howard County,” Parker said. “It appears to be a piece of a human skull, but it will have to be sent to a specialist before we'll know for sure. Right now we're working with the Justice of the Peace office to decide where it needs to be sent.”

Parker also declined to discuss the details of the call his office received regarding the discovery.

“It's an open investigation, at we're currently at a point where I can't release much in the way of details,” Parker said. “If it is a human skull, we don't yet know the identity of the person it belonged to at this time. Also, there haven't been any arrests as a result of the discovery.”

Parker urged local residents to be patient with the case, which could take a great deal of time to develop.

“The specialists that examine these sorts of remains take quite a while, so it could be some time before we hear back from them,” Parker said. “Until then, we'll continue to investigate the matter with the information we have, but details will most likely come slowly.”