
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991                   TAG: 9103140358
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

HUMAN BONES FOUND CLOSE TO GOLF COURSE

A hunting dog running through the woods near the Hunting Hills Country Club golf course Wednesday morning unearthed parts of a human skeleton, authorities said.

Roanoke County Police Chief John Cease said the remains could be associated with a skull found in the same area by dogs 12 years ago.

"We are operating on the theory that these skeletal remains may belong to that skull," he said.

The bones were found about 50 to 60 yards off a dirt road near U.S. 220 in the Pinkard Court community.

Cease said the same man who owned the dog that discovered the bones Tuesday owned the dog that discovered the skull in 1978. The man called police Wednesday after spotting a human leg bone.

Police found no indication of foul play. The skeleton was not intact, and the bones had been scattered.

Cease said the skull was tentatively identified as belonging to a black man after an analysis by the Smithsonian Institution in 1979. Cease said police think the bones may belong to a man reported missing in the city of Roanoke in the late 1970s.

County evidence technicians worked throughout the afternoon Wednesday in an attempt to gather clues to the identity of the skeleton. Police found a moccasin and remnants of a shirt with the bones.

The bones had leaves and other debris piled on top of them, but the bones did not appear to have been buried in the ground, Cease said.

by CNB