Resolved MI - Van Buren County - Skull Found by Logging Co., Jul'11 - *RELIC*

[CarlK90245]

The discovery was made in a cornfield in the area of 65 ½ Road and Red Arrow Highway.

Deputies say a logging company was out in the area Thursday morning, removing trees pushed over by recent storms when crews found a skull.

...

Deputies say they suspect the skull is somewhere between five and fifteen years old. They are investigating the scene as a homicide, but do not yet know who the remains belonged to or how that person died.

Read More:
http://www.wwmt.com/articles/buren-1393716-county-newschannel.html

... they found what appeared to be partial remains of a human skull under the root ball of a large, uprooted tree, the Van Buren County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

“The remains itself appear to have been there for quite some time, possibly from numerous years ago,” the news release said.

Read More:
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/07/human_skull_believed_to_have_b.html

 

[Katie267]

Thanks for posting. I was going to make this post but I am glad someone made it! Any idea on who this could be? Who was missing in that area 5 years ago?

 

[CarlK90245]

Thanks for posting. I was going to make this post but I am glad someone made it! Any idea on who this could be? Who was missing in that area 5 years ago?

I can only find two within a 40-mile radius of that location between 1995 and 2005.

Michelle Amy Lokker - Fennville MI 2003

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/lokker_michelle.html

Steven Earl Kraft II - Benton Harbor MI - 2001

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/kraft_steven.html

 

[CarlK90245]

Crews on the scene are estimating the tree to be 70 - 90 years old and that the skull could be over 100 years old.

Read More:
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/article/172688/14/UPDATE-Human-skull-found-underneath-tree

 

[Cubby]

So many of the skeletal remains found in MI seem to eventually be proven as ancient remains. I don't know of any other state that seems to have more ancient remains found than MI. (Or maybe it is that I keep an eye out for remains that may be Coral Hall from MI so those cases stand out.)

 

[Katie267]

Yeah, could about 100 years old is what the investigators are now saying. Perhaps a Native American, or a family farm was there and that's where they buried their dead.

 

[summer_breeze]

--- On Thu, 5/17/12, Dale Gribler <griblerd@vbco.org> wrote:


From: Dale Gribler <griblerd@vbco.org>
Subject: Re: MI - Van Buren County - Skull Found by Logging Company, July 2011
To: <redacted>
Date: Thursday, May 17, 2012, 8:25 PM


The remains were found in the root system of a tree that was well over 100 years old. We are still awaiting a report from Michigan State University but we are certain the remains are over 100 years old.

 

[CarlK90245]

The Michigan State University Anthropology Department ... concluded that the bones are somewhere between 100 to 200 years old.

They're of Native American ancestry, probably male, 20 to 35 years of age, maybe five-four to five-seven in height. The skeletal remains were ... turned over ... to tribal authorities with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi for interment on tribal lands.

http://www.wsjm.com/Police-Say-Human-Remains-Found-In-Hartford-Are-Ove/13560142