Searchers find more human remains, pickup in SWAR

BRADLEY, AR (KSLA) - More human remains have been found since the discovery of a skull earlier this week on forestland near Bradley, Ark.

Searchers also have uncovered a pickup Lafayette County Sheriff Obie Sims said apparently belonged to a man who went missing from Miller County, Ark., in the summer of 2015. Arkansas State Police are working that case.

At this time, Sims said, investigators have made no connection between the truck and the human remains.

Workers were replanting trees on land Weyerhauser maintains off Highway 29 when they discovered a skull in a wooded area.

"The skull has been sent to the crime lab, and we're hoping to get some DNA off of it," Sims said. "I hope they can tell us some information about it. We're trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together and see what this might be."

Deputies from Miller and Columbia have been on the scene because both Arkansas counties have missing people. Cadaver dogs are being used in the search, which is being assisted by volunteers.

"Every crime needs to be solved, ya'll, and this is definitely a crime," Sims told searchers.

Dozens of volunteers worked with his deputies as they searched the area about three miles north of Bradley where the skull was found Monday.

The hope is that the Arkansas crime lab will help in identifying the skull, Sims said.

"It's not that old. I mean, you can tell it is not no 10- or 15-year-old thing. But exactly how old it is, I really don't have no clue."

As workers battled the thick brush, more bones and other items that could be related to the found skull were located.

Sims found the truck in the woods.

"You can tell it has been here a whole because it is no way you can drive in here anymore. But, luckily, I just walked right up here on it."

The Miller County sheriff's office continually has been following up on leads about the missing person from 2015, Chief Deputy Michael McQuerry said. "We are hopeful that the locating of this vehicle will solve the missing person case."

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