Skeletal remains found in Lancaster County. Bones were there for years, sheriff’s office says
Lancaster County deputies and the coroner are working with South Carolina anthropologists to try and find out the identity of human bones after a utility worker found the skeletal remains in rural Lancaster County woods.
The bones found last week are the second set of human remains found in Lancaster County since October.
The bones were found Wednesday scattered in an area off Bethel Road east of the Catawba River, said Doug Barfield, spokesman for the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office. Officials then searched the area until Monday when they stopped the search and alerted the public about finding the remains, Barfield said.
It remains unclear who the person was, how they died and when. The person’s death is not recent and the bones likely had been exposed to the weather for years, Barfield said.
“We have not matched what was found with any missing person,” Barfield said Monday night.
Barfield declined to say if the remains were male or female, or what other evidence was recovered at the scene.
The case remains under investigation by Lancaster officials, along with a specialist in forensic anthropology from the Richland County’s Sheriff’s Department in Columbia, said Lancaster County Coroner Karla Knight-Deese.
On Oct. 8, construction crews found human remains from a person officials believed had been missing since June in woods off West Manor Drive in Lancaster. A preliminary investigation of the October remains did not show foul play, deputies said.
This story was originally published November 19, 2024 at 8:14 AM.
