Resolved NY - North Collins, Male Skeletal Remains buried off Gowanda Rd, Jun'17

The Erie County Sheriff's Office on Sunday said a pair of hikers found the remains in a wooded area near the Marion J. Fricano Town Park, which sits off Gowanda State Road just south of the Village of North Collins.

The hikers noticed what appeared to be human remains sticking above the dirt line and called 911 at 11:10 a.m. Saturday, said Scott Zylka, a Sheriff's Office spokesman.

Deputy Gary Mosier responded and found a boot and confirmed the discovery of a human skeleton, prompting the office to send out detectives and members of its Crime Scene Investigation Unit. In addition, representatives of the Erie County Medical Examiner's Office and an anthropology team from Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., were called.

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Deputies recalled Sunday that an adult male did go missing from neighboring Brant about 15 years ago, but that speculation would have to be researched. The body could apply to any ongoing missing persons case.



The Sheriff's Office will have to investigate if this was, in fact, a murder. Captain Savage said Sunday that the town park off of Gowanda State Road (Rt. 62 South) was not always developed as it is now, and may have served as a place for someone to pull off the road and discreetly commit a crime. He emphasized they do not know anything for sure at this time.

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It may take a long time – if ever – for investigators to identify the human remains recovered this past weekend from a wooded area in North Collins, authorities said Tuesday.

The remains appear to be that of an adult man. DNA from the skeleton or dental records could play a role in identifying the individual, according to Scott Zylka, spokesman for the Erie County Sheriff's Office.

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Sheriff's detectives are reviewing lists of missing persons and consulting with other law enforcement agencies, Zylka said.

Even if the medical examiner is successful in obtaining DNA, there may not be a matching sample "in any database," Zylka said of the challenges facing investigators.

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Howard says a Western-style jacket known to have been manufactured in the 70s was found along with the skeletal remains, as well as a pair of jeans. A brass button also recovered suggests the jeans may have been made by Wrangler.

Finally, the boot that led to the initial discovery is described as a modern boot, and is a size 11.

Howard said if that shoe size matches the foot size of any local missing persons in the past 40 years, that it would be promising start to identifying the body.

The Sheriff’s Office is currently looking into forensic labs nationwide that might be most capable of identifying the remains. Sheriff Howard said the remains are so deteriorated, any lab will run into difficulty finding useful DNA, but did suggest that some teeth that were excavated may be the most promising.

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The deterioration of facial structural and pelvic bones required a slight back-track from one original assumption over the weekend. At first, the Sheriff’s Office believed the body to be that of a large male. Now, they say due to deterioration, they cannot confidently determine the body’s gender or race.

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Buffalo, N.Y. -- Officials are looking through over 1,000 missing persons cases for leads in identifying human remains found in Upstate New York.

Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard said Thursday they are assuming the remains are linked to a homicide. WGRZ-TV reports the body found in North Collins on Sunday had clothing that indicated the person had died sometime in the past 40 years.

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"We can see he was wearing a Barry Dolan jacket, which was something from back in the 60s and 70s, we believe," said Detectives Captain Gregory Savage. "The Kaufman boots were from back in that era. A pen was found that we're trying to track down, possibly, an address that was on the pen."

A forensic excavation team from Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania helped investigators by clearing vegetation and mapping out the area. DNA samples were submitted to a lab for analysis.

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Romulus said:

Accessories:Blue and white pen: FTACORE INCORPORATED, 1294 SEVENTEENTH ST., DETROIT, MI 40215, Ph. # 313-237-0077;

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Otterly said:

The history says Kaufman was Canadian too. Maybe this guy was from Canada?

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In addition, zip codes were introduced July 1, 1963. So this had to of happened after 1963.

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The zip code given, 40215 is in Jefferson County, Kentucky.

Interestingly, I found that the zip code 48215 currently covers an area in the Southeast of Detroit, bordering the neighborhood of Grosse Point Park. The current zip code for 1294 17th Street is 48216, which is west of downtown Detroit. I found nothing to indicate that these zip codes have changed. Evidently zip code changes have been rare since the introduction of zip codes, mostly occurring in suburbanizing areas.

As a result, I'd guess the pen is a bit hard to read, it has been buried 40-50 years after all, and the best investigators could make out was 40215, while the pen actually says 48216

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