YOUNGSTOWN - Investigators say more human bones have been found in a heavily wooded area of the Sharon Line where a dog found a skull last month.
''Each time we've gone out there, we've found bones,'' Mahoning County forensic pathologist Dr. Joseph Ohr said on Thursday.
Investigators have made several trips to the Vaughn Street home on the East Side where a dog found the skull on Feb. 16, Ohr said.
''It looks like the dogs have brought the bones into the yard,'' he said.
The bones all appear to be from the same skeleton, a person of mixed ancestry who is between the ages of 25 to 50 but most likely 30 to 35. Investigators are asking for dental records from two or three theories, Ohr said.
Investigators are working with an anthropologist from Youngstown State University, combing missing persons data banks from Pennsylvania and Ohio, and the Youngstown Police Department.
Homeowner James Dutting reported the discovery when he was walking one of his dogs in the woods. Dutting lives in the last house on Vaughn Street, a dead-end street that has few houses and is surrounded by woods.
Ohr said investigators believe all the bones are from the same skeleton because there are no duplicates. He said the skull is still missing the lower jaw, but from what was available in the upper jaw, it looks like the person had good nutrition because of the shape of their teeth and that also found metal fillings in some of the teeth as well.
Ohr said one thing that is crucial is finding a grave or final place where the person died, because that will hold clues in determining how the person died and how long ago. A grave site can offer such clothes as clothing or shell casings or bullets if the person was shot, Ohr said.
A cadaver dog searched the woods Tuesday and didn't find anything. Ohr said search dogs will return when the weather improves.
The Sharon Line has been plagued in the past by illegal dumping and occasionally a dead body has been found in the area.