Police try to identify skeletal find
The skeletal remains of an unidentified person found by a hiker in a remote area of the northwest valley this weekend was most likely a man between the ages of 20 and 40, police said Monday.
Metropolitan Police Department homicide Sgt. Steve Naegele said the investigation into identifying the body is ongoing, but the incident doesn't appear to be a case of foul play.
"Nothing is pointing us to the fact it was a homicide," Naegele said. "But we treat everything as a homicide until proven otherwise."
Naegele said detectives are combing through files of missing people as part of the investigation and that an autopsy by the Clark County coroner's office determined the probable age and gender of the remains.
The office hadn't identified the body Monday.
A hiker discovered the partial skeleton in a wash Saturday morning at the base of a cliff about two miles west of Lone Mountain Road and the Las Vegas Beltway.
After spotting the remains, the hiker, who is in the Air Force but was not identified, left a GPS device and returned to log the coordinates of the skeleton's location.
About 10 a.m. he went to the department's Enterprise Area Command in the southwest valley and told police what he found.
The bones included a skull, jawbone, ribs, and part of a pelvic bone.
There were no obvious signs of trauma, police said.
Naegele said there were also "quite a few teeth" found that might be used to identify the body.
Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.
