RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. — Human remains have been found recently in Sumter, Orangeburg, and now Richland County. And every time a set of remains is discovered, it's up to the coroner's office to identify who that person may have been.
"If you don't have DNA from the bones that you've got to compare it with a known sample, you're shooting in the dark when you don't have any DNA starting out from the original bones and the skull that you found," Sumter County Coroner Robbie Baker said.
This week in Richland County, construction workers found remains at a sand pit in northeast Richland County. An incident report states an anthropologist believed the remains were buried for almost 10 years in a five-foot-deep grave.
Baker said it's a challenging process to identify those remains. As an example, Baker said his office has been dealing with a case of its own after hunters found a human skull in the county in December.
"Because this skull was out in the elements for decades it is beyond SLED's capabilities to be able to extract DNA from the teeth, so I've already submitted a request to with the national missing persons database for missing an identified people that might be a year, year and a half, two years from now before they're able to get the skull from me and hopefully extract DNA from the teeth," Baker said.
The coroner said it was an African-American male between 30 and 45 years of age, but Baker said they are still working to get more information. He said one of their biggest challenges is the weather.
"Because this skull has been out in the weather and the elements for decades this individual could've been deceased 50 years ago, could've been 30 years ago," Baker said.
Some remains can belong to people who don't reside in Sumter or even South Carolina.
"You're starting out from ground zero where you got a person that was not from Sumter or South Carolina, and you're trying to find out where they're from and then you're trying to track down a next of kin, logistically it can be tough," Baker said.
The coroner said once the DNA is extracted from the teeth, a DNA comparison can begin to identify the remains.
Anyone with information on the Sumter or Richland County case can call Crimestoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC or the local coroner's office.