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By ÉRIC TICHY
MAYVILLE – Further information regarding the discovery of two sets of human remains in the city of Portland last week is expected to be shared by county officials today. A press conference is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. at the county emergency services building in Mayville, the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office said.
The news comes after Sheriff James Quattrone said he met with a team from the Department of Applied Forensic Sciences at Mercyhurst University on Monday, which also included the coroner, the county medical director and an investigator. He said the meeting was to consider the investigation after human remains were found near a public footpath along Woleben Road in Portland.
Officials were awaiting a preliminary report on the initial findings, Quattrone said.
A set of remains was found on the evening of September 26 by a woman looking for keys she had previously lost near the Chautauqua Rails to Trails system. Quattrone said the body, believed to be that of a woman, appears to have been buried at the site for some time.
The next day, another set of remains were found. Both are being analyzed by anthropology officials at Mercyhurst in Erie, Pennsylvania.
The sheriff said during Monday’s meeting, Mercyhurst requested a “Few sets of documents they were hoping to get so they could complete their examination of the remains and complete the preliminary report.” “
The Mercyhurst Department of Applied Forensic Sciences has been called by the Ohio Police Department in Buffalo to assist when remains are found. Department chairman Dr Dennis Dirkmaat said it was not uncommon for police to send photographs of skeletal remains to the department to determine if they are human.
Dirkmaat said the university can help deal with the outdoor scenes by researching all of the evidence, including the bones; differentiate human bones from animal bones; apply “Methods of forensic archeology” clean up the scene without disturbing the evidence; and recover the remains and evidence of “All types of scenes”, including surface dispersal, buried bodies, fatal fires and mass disasters.
“Our main objective is to piece together what happened in the past at the scene – how long ago has this happened, explain why the remains are scattered, missing or altered” Dirkmaat said in an interview this week. “It’s more than just finding and collecting human bones. Basically we are trying to document and interpret the exterior scene as well as the police document and interpret the interior scene. “
The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office has used the university in the past.
“My first experience working with Mercyhurst was with the localization of Yolanda Bindics,” Quattrone spoke of the September 2006 discovery of remains in the north of the county. “Since then, we have periodically asked for help in determining whether the bones were human or not.”
“This investigation is the first major incident since taking office as sheriff that we brought into the forensic anthropology team”, he added. “It is an invaluable resource that Mercyhurst provides and Dr. Dirkmaat and his team have been great to work with. “
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