Skull not from historical site

[Lost in time]

Police are searching missing person records, haven't ruled out murder

The coroner has determined that a skull found in a rural ditch isn't from an ancient cemetery or other historical source.

Now Hamilton police are digging through missing person reports, among other avenues, to put a name to the mysterious remains.

"If it were an old skull, we wouldn't be investigating at this level of detail," said Dr. David Eden, regional supervising coroner.

"From the fact that we're continuing, you can draw your own conclusions."

Officers spent yesterday morning searching a field off Glancaster Road near where the battered skull was found about 6:30 p.m. on Monday. The site is between Chippewa Road and Fiddler's Green Road.

The skull would simply have been buried if investigators had determined it was historical, Eden said.

Police aren't ruling out homicide, said Sergeant George Narozniak, but he added it could be a suicide or someone who died in the woods.

"We're going to look at everything, from missing people to cemeteries in the area," he said.

Major crimes, the unit that investigates murder, isn't involved in the case yet.

A medical exam has revealed a preliminary age, sex and ethnic background for the deceased, Eden said, adding investigators also examined the skull for signs of injury.

He can't make the information public until police are satisfied it won't harm their investigation. A forensic anthropologist is scheduled to examine the skull next.

"The answers to that will be maintained confidential as the investigation is pending," he said.

Eden said he couldn't disclose whether more remains had been found in the area on other occasions. There were no signs left of the search by yesterday afternoon.

Residents in the quiet Glanbrook area appear unruffled by news of the skull's discovery.

Jill Stratford walked her dog along Glancaster Road.

She said it's unlikely the skull was dug up by animals and dragged from a nearby cemetery, as the nearest graveyards are at least five kilometres away.

She speculated that the skull was thrown from a vehicle. She once found a bag of large animal bones on her driveway, likely dropped from a passing garbage truck.

[Lost in time]

They found another body recently in Orillia floating thank goodness it wasnt him...my heart hurts each time i hear that they found a body somewhere close

[Lost in time]

*starts to breathe again...there is still hope..I just read something in the spectator from a couple of days ago

Search uncovers more remains

Hamilton police have found more human remains off a rural road where a human skull was found last week.

Five dogs were used in the search yesterday of the Glancaster Road area, in between Chippewa Road and Fiddler's Green Road, near the border with Haldimand County. The skull was found in the ditch by a neighbour on the evening of April 9, but it was first observed by other neighbours April 7. They believed it was an animal skull.

The search, which also doubled as a training exercise, found the remains an hour after starting, at about 10 a.m. The remains are believed to be related to the skull found earlier.

The exercise involved members from the Crowd Management Unit, two OPP canine officers and three dogs from search and rescue.

"This was our planned training week," said Inspector Vince DeMascio. "Because a skull was found here ... we decided to take this opportunity to use the group to search."

Police say an autopsy will be done today, but said foul play is not suspected. The discovery is being treated as a coroner's case, which means the person probably died in the past 15 years.