-
Some items found
Brasstown – A photograph recovered from a digital camera may have solved the mystery of human skeletal remains discovered Feb. 13 in a wooded area near Little Brasstown Baptist Church.
Cherokee County sheriff’s Chief Deputy Joe Wood said investigators are pursuing a lead that the bones belong to an artist with ties to New Mexico and the West Coast. On Monday, investigators released photos obtained from a digital camera recovered near the remains in the hopes that the public could provide new leads by identifying individuals, items or places featured in the images.
Within hours of those pictures appearing online, authorities were contacted by a north Georgia resident featured in one of the images. That tip pointed Wood out West.
“Just through the release of those pictures, we have developed more promising information,” Wood said. “I’m confident now that we will make an identification.
“We’ve got a fairly good identification on the paintings, the specific artist. The physical characteristics, the height and so forth of that artist is similar to the height of what these remains would be.”
Although investigators believe the remains have been there for years, Wood said the artist has never been reported missing. However, that is not unheard of in cases where remains are discovered.
“There are a lot of folks who travel and nobody would ever know they’re missing,” he said. “A lot of people travel from one coast to the other, so it may be a long time before anybody knows they’re missing, especially if they don’t have a lot of family.”
The remains are now with the state medical examiner in Winston-Salem, where a pathologist identified them as being from a taller male who could have been up to about 50 years old at the time of his death. Wood said investigators have been in the process of attempting to make a positive identification through dental records or DNA.
“I just don’t want to say his name until I know for sure,” he said. “I’m finding one possible family member in the whole country, and I’ve got to try to track that person down.”
Wood said an individual came across the bones while searching the woods for old bottles and jars about two-tenths of a mile from the church near the 6200 block of Brasstown Road. The remains were discovered between two ridges in an area that is not commonly traveled.
Besides the camera, investigators recovered a variety of personal items from the scene including a laptop, cell phone, eating utensils, eyeglasses, watch, flashlight, two different-size backpacks – including a large one commonly used by hikers – and a tarp. Wood said it appeared that a campsite had been set up or the individual was in the process of setting one up at the time of his death.
“That canvas backpack was extremely deteriorated,” Wood said. “We were finding personal items that actually had roots growing over them.
“Not large roots, but some of those small, hair-like roots that some of the plants will have in the area. They were actually under a layer of dirt.”
The electronics in particular helped narrow down the time frame of the man’s death and provide further clues. Wood said the laptop recovered from the scene was produced in 2016.
“The camera had obviously been subject to the elements and the animals,” he said. “There’s obvious animal markings where they’ve been chewing on this camera.
“We extracted the SD card, which initially showed nothing on it. One of the detectives was able to recover those files.”
Some of the photos show artwork that appears to have been produced by the man, including paintings and custom wooden picture frames. Other images include landscapes and buildings. Out of about 100 photos obtained from the camera’s memory card, Wood said only two of the images feature people.
Investigators also have been working to see if any files or information can be recovered from the hard drive on the laptop. Wood is less hopeful about anything being recovered from the cell phone, which he described as being in “really bad shape.”
He added that the phone is one that could be bought at almost any retailer, including some convenience stores.
Wood said it might be possible to match DNA left on batteries inside the flashlight.
“It had a really good seal as far as the battery compartment,” he said. “Hopefully those batteries could contain some DNA if he was the one who placed them in the flashlight.”
That process typically takes time and can even force investigators to search for a match through online Ancestry databases. Dental records could provide a positive identification more quickly, but that process features its own hurdles that investigators must jump through.
“We’ve got some obvious dental work that’s been done to this individual, so that’s another lead that we’ll be searching out,” Wood said. “When you’re running dental records, you’ve got to have something to watch them to, and the same with DNA. That’s where your longer process (comes in).”
Wood said from the start that the remains never aligned with any known missing persons from Cherokee County, but investigators did look into the possibility that they belonged to Dylan Brock, a 34-year-old Orange County man who went missing in the Franklin area four years ago.
Brock is featured on the website ncmissingpersons.org, which is operated by Community United Effort. The organization, also known as the Center for Missing Persons, is a Wilmington-based nonprofit organization that serves missing persons nationwide.
“Dylan has not been seen since he left his house in Cedar Grove on Jan 27th, 2018,” the website states.
“Dylan’s driver license, journal, backpack, sleeping bag, hiking boots, and a heavy wool coat were found in a tent 50 feet in front of his parked truck which was at Gap Rock parking lot for the Appalachian Trail off National Forest Road in Franklin, NC on Feb 14, 2018.”