Identified! WA - Seattle, Partial human remains in woods, Dec'11 - Donald Meyer

A volunteer helping the homeless found a human leg bone and foot in a black plastic bag under the Ship Canal Bridge Saturday morning.

Heroes for the Homeless founder Tricia Lapitan said a group of three volunteers was in the 3100 block of Fairview Avenue East in the Eastlake neighborhood at about 10 a.m., walking in a wooded area, when one of them stepped on a plastic bag on a small hillside.

When the volunteer looked down to see what she had stepped on, she saw that it might be human remains.

"I guess it was from the knee down, and it was pretty decomposed," said Lapitan.

She described the volunteer as "shocked" and said the three immediately left the area and called police.

The King County Medical Examiner took possession of the remains, and Seattle Police homicide detectives processed the scene, according to a police department spokeswoman.

Heroes for the Homeless delivers cold-weather emergency gear to the homeless. They were in the area Saturday with hand warmers, sleeping bags and other supplies to offer to homeless people living outside in the area.

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Gardenlady said:

Sorry for the double post, but also wanted to add that garbage bags were one of the items she purchased at Safeway just before going missing. She was seen on tape leaving the store NE of where these remains we're found, and I believe that was the last anyone saw her. So, kind of a link there, that the remains were found in a black plastic bag.

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SEATTLE - Human remains were found in a wooded area under the Ship Canal Bridge on Saturday morning.

Police say volunteers with Heroes for the Homeless were sweeping the brush when they found something unusual.

"Appears to be a human foot," said Asst. Police Chief Jim Pugel.

Police searched further and found what appear to be other decomposed body parts - which were separated by as much as six feet - and bagged.

"Some of the pieces were wrapped in plastic,” said Pugel.

Police are operating under the belief the body parts were dumped, potentially from Interstate 5.

Pugel said there was a similar case at a south Seattle recycling plant this past summer - and detectives will check to see if there is a connection.

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The victim was identified as Donald S. Meyer, 53, who disappeared in June 2011

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Meyer sold marijuana and lived in an apartment in the 6300 block of 22nd Avenue Northwest. And he had a new roommate.

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On July 8, it became a murder investigation. A man's torso was found in some construction debris delivered to a Georgetown recycling business. The debris had come in a Dumpster picked up a half-block from Meyer's apartment, police say in court documents.

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The day before the torso was found, detectives went to Meyer's apartment. A bedroom had been painted so recently that there was still the aroma of fresh paint. Carpet had been removed, and the floor had been cleaned, the documents say.

Then there was the blood.

Detectives saw what they thought were blood drops on a bedroom wall and a blood stain on a carpet, documents said. Crime scene investigators revealed the presence of blood on a bedroom floor and bathroom floor and countertop.

They found a bloody trail of footprints into the kitchen. A mop at the apartment had blood on it as well, the documents say.

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Seattle police have made an arrest in the connection with the 2011 slaying of Donald Meyer, whose remains were found in Georgetown and underneath the Ship Canal Bridge.

King County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Dan Donohoe said Scott Halfhill was charged Monday with second-degree murder. Halfhill, 59, was booked into the King County Jail on Monday.

Halfhill, who was Meyer’s roommate, has long been a suspect in the case, authorities said. Halfhill was apparently upset with Meyer for “doing drugs,” charges said.

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