Identified! WV - Kanawha Falls, Human remains near Gauley Bridge, Dec'16 - Historic

FAYETTE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Deputies say they are looking into the possibility the remains that were found could be a woman missing since the 1970s. According to deputies, the remains could be of Sue Roop who went missing in February 1979.

The Fayette County Sheriff's Department says the remains were found Tuesday afternoon by a person looking for arrowheads in the Kanawha Falls area.
When investigators arrived on scene, they found many other bones found buried in a shallow grave.

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Gardener1850 said:

[h=1]UPDATE: Deputies looking into possibility remains belong to woman missing since 1970s[/h]
http://www.wsaz.com/content/news/Ho...ins-found-under-cliff-overhang-408517855.html

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Inthedetails said:

Is there a thread for her under cold cases?

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Gardener1850 said:

I couldn't find one but I also could not find enough about her case to start one. I found an article from 2014 that said they thought she could be some other remains found: http://www.wvva.com/story/24821984/2014/02/25/the-body-on-bolt-mountain-a-wvva-special-report
They must have concluded those remains were not her for LE to think these new remains could be her, but I didn't find any follow-up.

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Inthedetails said:

Thanks for checking. So there is nothing here on WS to update and tell people about this latest finding (as of yet).

It might be premature in this instance to also think it is Sue Roop anyway. I'm hopeful LE will be able to figure out the identify.

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Based on the fact that the bones appear to be between 30 and 40 years old, Capt. Jim Sizemore says the remains may belong to Sue Roop, a mother who disappeared 37 years ago.

Sizemore says the connection to Roop is currently only a "wild guess," but Roop is the only person from the area who is missing from that period.

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Human remains were found under a cliff in Fayette County Tuesday afternoon, and investigators believe there's a strong possibility the remains could be those of a woman who has been missing 37 years.

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The woman who went missing in February of 1979 was Sue Roop, who was 29 at the time.
The location where the remains were spotted Tuesday is close to where Roop had family at the time, investigators say.

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Investigators say Roop is the only missing person they know of from that time period where the body was never found.
Deputies say they recovered some teeth and enough biological material for DNA analysis to determine if it was indeed Roop's remains that were found.

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aonesleuth said:

Really When we look at all known facts out there until that DNA is matched and results released to the public its not known who this woman really is or when she actually cam up missing or from what area state maybe even another country either while the bridge was being built or right after it was finished. The Police need to Eliminate what is fact and what is not fact in this case and the remains found under the bridge of the Va Tech Student.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_River_Gorge_Bridge also
http://wvmetronews.com/2017/03/13/d...gorge-bridge-that-of-missing-va-tech-student/ There are other Could be facts in both of these cases neither could be murders at all more so in the Sue Roop case if these remains prove by DNA not to be Sue Roop. They could be those of a Tourist from out of state or out of the country.
https://www.nps.gov/neri/planyourvisit/nrgbridge.htm So the Bridge was in use and visitors likely came to see the bridge even before it was finished being built to see and take photos. Then comes some other hard cold facts these two remains found near and under the bridge could in fact both be Black Bear Kills The Va Tech Student may have just ran into a Bear when walking over the bridge and on low traffic times like real early in the mornings its likely a smart bear could use the bridge to get from one side to the other rather than using the river to cross over. I am not sure when the Fence was put up but if there was no fence at the time of the Va Tech Students death he could have ran into a bear in the dark and been attacked and thrown over the bridge by a bear causing the injury that made it look like he'd been hit by a car. Also the area floods so where his body was found don't mean that is where the landing zone was floods may have moved his body over the years several times. Next the Female remains had she been their in fall when you can really see and walk the area much more easy may have come upon the cliff area that could have been a Den For Mom & Baby Bears as Kids we come to run into mom and baby bears freaked us out cause mom came our direction soon as she saw us you never seen 4 little boys run so fast in your life as we did So it is possible that the Female remains could have been a bear attack either by the mom bear or baby bear and they are known to bury their killed attacked pray in a shallow grave while this is a rare event it happens and DNA of the Remains will tell detectives much more. Let hope and say our prayers that both, All these cases are solved. So investigators need to eliminate true from fact facts or not facts to solve these cases."(http://www.livescience.com/15569-bear-attack-forensic-investigation-dna-analysis.html;( so its not out of the question that both these cases could have been bear attacks or that the Va Tech Student was not hit by a car or truck and the driver never knew it in the dark hours of the night not knowing the weather the night/s he was thought o come up missing was it rain, fog or clear and just dark had someone headlights not been working lots of questions need to be answered. Also Wild Cat perhaps Mountain Lions bury their pray while normally it smaller pray its can't be ruled out a larger Wild Mountain Cat did not kill a human being.http://www.discoverwildlife.com/british-wildlife/how-identify-animal-food-stores;( Sadly for Families and police its such a slow process to eliminate facts and non facts and the evidence will point them the right directions.

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Owutatangledweb said:

I am really confused. Were there two sets of remains or one? This updated article states that the remains (which are the subject of this thread) have been identified as the Virginia tech student.

http://www.wsaz.com/content/news/Ho...ins-found-under-cliff-overhang-408517855.html

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Human remains found below a West Virginia bridge belong to a Virginia Tech graduate student who vanished nearly two decades ago...

In March 2016, human remains were found in a heavily wooded area below the bridge, along with Kovack's driver's license, a college ID and car keys, authorities told the Roanoke Times.

Now DNA evidence has confirmed the remains are Kovack's, West Virginia State Police Lt. M.T. Baylous said.

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Human remains found in Fayette County originally believed to bet that of Susan Roop who went missing in February 1979, were confirmed Friday to be ancient remains of three different individuals, Fayette County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Harrah reported.

Harrah said in December of 2016 a person searching for artifacts near Kanawha Falls came across human remains, and deputies collected them from underneath a cliff overhang. The remains were sent to the State's Medical Examiner's Office and later sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Quantico, Va. for analysis.


Harrah said at the time of the discovery former Chief of Detectives J.K. Sizemore believed the remains belonged to Roop, who went missing from the Bentree area.

Deputies received notice from the FBI Friday that the remains did not belong to Roop, and that they remains were considered "ancient," containing bones from three different individuals.


Harrah said the report indicated the bones may possibly be a couple hundred years old, contrary to an initial analysis.

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