WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — West Palm Beach police are investigating the discovery of skeletal human remains in an empty lot.
A police department spokesman said a resident searching for his lost rooster around 6 p.m. Tuesday found the remains in the 1400 block of North Sapodilla Avenue.
"While they were out going through this vacant lot, came across what looked like a bone sticking out of the dirt, kicked it, and it appeared to be a human skull," said Mike Jachles, the public information officer for the West Palm Beach Police Department.
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Crime scene investigators responded to the scene Tuesday evening and recovered the skull, along with human arm bones.
"It's too soon to tell how long the remains have been here," Jachles said. "It appears that they were buried. Some of the remains were buried in a shallow dirt area."
Police said it's too early to identify the gender or whether there was any trauma on the person's body.
The West Palm Beach Police Department is being assisted by forensic anthropologists at Florida Gulf Coast University near Fort Myers, and homicide detectives are also involved in the investigation.
"The remains are buried in the dirt. Don't know if it's a shallow grave," Jachles said. "Whether all the remains were together, or they could be scattered over an area."
Crews continued searching and digging throughout the day Wednesday and at around 1 p.m. the full skeleton was recovered at the same area along with some personal items.
Jachles said officials believe the bones have been there for "a few years."
Police added they're going to be checking local missing persons databases in an effort to identify the remains.