Liza Wilhelm told the Journal-News her sons were hiking in the woods early in the afternoon to take advantage of the improving weather when one of them tripped over something on the ground.
“He kind of looked back to see what it was,” Wilhelm said. “He thought it was a stone … and it didn’t look right, so he moved the snow away and realized that it was a skull and when he picked it up he realized it was a human skull.”
Police and the Butler County Coroner’s Office officials responding to the scene also found a second bone.
Finding oddities in the area behind their home isn’t anything new, Wilhelm said. In the two years the family has lived there, her children have found everything from mattresses and a refrigerator to deer and coyote bones.
She said her family's main concern is with the family of the deceased.
“We just really hope that our prayers could be answered that the identity can be made and the family can be notified and bring closure to all,” she said.
Neighbor Agnabel Jimenez said it was disconcerting that such an item turned up in an area where neighborhood children play, but does not evoke crime-related fears.
“I’m scared of the living, I’m not scared of the dead,” Jimenez said.
The coroner’s office, which is taking the lead in the case, is searching for additional evidence and attempting to identify the remains. Investigators combed the woods for several hours Monday, emerging in the afternoon with several full bags.
Asked earlier in the day how long the remains might have been there, their approximate age range and the type of bone discovered beside the skull, coroner’s office Administrator Martin Schneider said there is “not really anything” that can be discerned at this point.
“It’s all too early to be able to say anything one way or another about anything at all,” Schneider said.
Butler County Coroner Dr. Lisa Mannix released a statement that further search of the area revealed “additional human skeletal remains.”
Mannix said she and Dr. Elizabeth Murray, a forensic anthropologist from Mount St. Joseph University, are examining those remains. Murray is one of only approximately 60 board-certified forensic anthropologists in North America and has assisted in both forensic and historic skeletal investigations on the local, regional, national and international levels since 1986, according to her university webpage.
Mannix said the identity of the person remains unknown at this time.
“A preliminary biological profile should be available within a week or so,” she said in the statement. “The investigation into possible cause and manner of death is ongoing.”
Police ask anyone with additional information that may assist in the investigation to call 513-777-2231.
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