Found Deceased GA - Michael Sanders, 33, Crawford Co., June 2014

Middle Georgia Cold Cases: The Search for Sanders

A Crawford County man went missing in June 2014 and his older sisters want to know what happened....

...33-year-old Michael Sanders was fun. His sisters, Gina and Sabrina, say their little brother was the life of the party. ...

...The Crawford County clan says although there may have been an age difference, they were close to their brother — a father to three little girls.

"He would not go over a week without at least giving me a call. If he had to walk a mile to get wi-fi so that I wouldn’t worry about him. That was his biggest concern," Gina said.

So when Gina, who routinely spoke to her brother, didn’t get a call one day in June 2014, she began to worry. ...

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Skeletal remains found in Crawford County woods

A GBI crime-scene unit and Crawford County deputies are investigating skeletal remains found in woods off Old Knoxville Road....

...Ricketson estimates that they've collected about 90 percent of the skeleton.

He said he believes the remains involve just one body, probably a man....

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After skeleton is recovered in Crawford County, family wants answers

...A Crawford County family suspects the bones may belong to their brother.

"I know it was him, I know it's him," said Tina Sanders of her brother, Michael Sanders, who disappeared in June of 2014....

...GBI Special Agent J.T. Ricketson said although Sanders is a missing person in Crawford County his case is not the only one they are looking at....

...The GBI said it could be several weeks before the bones are identified. They said they are looking at every missing person case that happened within 20 to 30 miles of where they recovered the skeleton....

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A year ago this week, skeletal remains were found off Old Knoxville Road in Crawford County.

The bones were turned over to the GBI for testing, but over 365 days later, the Crawford County Sheriff's Office still doesn't have results.

GBI Special Agent JT Ricketson told WMAZ on Tuesday afternoon that the bones were sent out of state to another crime lab for additional testing not offered in Georgia.

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"One of the families contacted us because one of their family members was last seen in that area," says Walker. That was the family of Michael Sanders.

"We got them in, went over the case with them, where we was at, what we had done," says Walker.

Walker says they also took DNA samples from the Sanders family, but he will not make any speculation on whom the bones belong to until they get the test results back from the crime lab.

"It's a case that we want to bring to closure, but it's tough when you send your evidence off and are just waiting for it to get back," says Walker.

Walker says he hasn't heard anything from the GBI in over 6 months in relation to this case.

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