A human skull was found Monday morning in Newton County, but authorities said they don't have an official identification on the remains.
Newton County Sheriff Glenn Wheeler said the skull was located by a local resident southwest of Sam's Throne near Mt. Judea on U.S. Forest Service land. He said the skull was was found near an area that was the subject of a multi-week, large-scale search for a missing woman in June.
Pamela Samuels-Lauro was reporting missing from Garland County on June 3 and her pickup was found near Sam's Throne a few days later. Authorities searched the area for weeks, but Lauro was never found.
"At this point we don't have an official identification on who this is," the sheriff said in a news release. "The skull will be submitted to the Medical Examiner's Office to try and obtain an identity or compare it to known missing person cases."
Wheeler said the skull was the only piece of remains found, but investigators will continue to search the area for other remains.