WARNING- this is huge!! It took me a while, so bare with me!
Andalso, before I respond to your question I would like to list the various details I took into consideration before making my conclusion. One thing that stood out to me in the article is that they were referred to as "remains" and not "a body". To me, that is distancing them from the human form, either due to complete skeletonization or an incomplete set. Or I am just reading way too far into things!! I know this is very long, but I have put much thought into this and feel like I need to explain my reasoning. Anyways, here is my list-
-Time of death-Going with the assumption these "remains" are skeletal, I would expect an exposed body in this environment to be fully skeletonized within 3 months. Factors that increase the rate are humidity, temperature and predation, all of which seem to be pertinent in this case. Even if the body were in a shallow grave, predators could have dug it up and insects would have had access. I should also add that if any tissue did remain, Kelli had several tattoos that could have been used for a positive ID (very unlikely in this environment).
-Cause of Death- we don't have any information on this, but I have a feeling we are beyond the stage of being able to make a solid determination. If it happened to be a gunshot wound or a head injury that caused a fracture the bones could show supporting evidence. But I dont recall any reports of gunshots, or mention of a gun whatsoever, or any other potential weapon for that matter (doesnt mean it didnt happen). The majority of sexual homicides (assuming it was sexually motivated) are a form of strangulation. Absence of evidence to the contrary doesn't mean it was strangulation, but that also fits the psych profile of someone I would consider a top suspect. Predator activity would definitely complicate things.
-Age of the deceased- 23 is approaching the range in which age determination gets trickier, 25 is normally considered the cutoff. I assume that she had her wisdom teeth removed in boot camp, so they would be of no use for age. They could examine some of the growth plates in the bones, as long as they havent been damaged by predation. Overall, I suspect they have a decent idea about what age range the corpse is within.
-Race of deceased- There are some pretty prevalent features that help in race identification, especially when ruling out some of the higher mortality groups of the area. As long as the skull is intact it shouldnt be too difficult to make a determination.
-Gender- Same as with race, the pelvis would be most beneficial but the skull/mandible can also be used.
Overall, it really depends on how intact the remains are. I havent heard reports of them searching the area for bones carried off by predators, so in a way I feel like there was decent preservation. Maybe some of those involved in search efforts could provide insight into that. That being said, given Kellis age, race and body structure (she was only 51) I would expect LE to at the least be able to rule her out. Her dental records might be too normal for comparison purposes, but once again, I would think they could at least rule her out based on them (assuming they still exist). I havent checked out the local missing persons report, but skimming that might give you an idea of what the typical victim statistically is and how that compares to Kelli. Since they havent ruled her out, I unfortunately suspect they are awaiting positive confirmation by the bone marrow.
Onto what I assume will be the more controversial analysis- the assailant and COD. Kelli is a cute girl and I do not doubt for one second that she attracted plenty of attention from men. Combine that with the last person we know of that saw her alive and things get disturbing. When I first heard about NHs sexual offense at such a young age, I assumed it wasnt a huge deal. I say this because I have a friend who got in a HUGE amount of trouble after mooning the stands at a football game. He ended up having to register as a sex offender for what he considered a youthful prank. You may or may not agree with that, but lets get back to the case at hand. In reality, I believe the crime NH committed was disturbing and indicative of his psychological state. If it was with someone his own age, I can begin to rationalize his intent. I think he was old enough to know what he was doing and his actions support psychological instability. I think this point is important because it would support a COD scenario of strangulation. The rate of strangulation with sexual homicide is quite high, as is evidence of psychological instability of the assailant. From what we know, she only knew him for a week or so, but that doesnt mean he wasnt aware of her. He could have been watching her for a few weeks, heard about her husband being gone which provided him the time to insert himself into her life (when he asked to play pool). From what I read, they planned her transportation out ahead of time- he would pick her up AND drop her off. He knew he would have to get back to the bar for an alibi so he may have kept her in his car and waited a couple hours before disposing of her. Or the reports of him returning 10 minutes later are inaccurate.
A complete stranger could have attacked her as well, but most victims know their assailant and things seem to add up that way now. Those cell phone texts are also interesting. Assuming she never made it home, it is likely the assailant sent at least one of the messages. If NH had been keeping tabs on her, he may have caught onto her behaviors and known that she would have checked in with somebody. I do admit it seems odd that he would act out on an urge so long after his first offense, assuming there arent others we can attribute him to. Maybe it was opportunistic, maybe she turned him down and that set him off- who knows! On the outside he appears to be a good looking and typical guy, Kelli might not have known him long enough to think otherwise. Or maybe she did have suspicions, which is why she was updating somebody via text.
This is my opinion based on the facts made public pertaining to the remains that were found in addition to a couple assumptions. Even without the psychological aspects of NH, it does seem like they would have ruled her ID out by now.
