LAKE TAPPS, Wash. — Deputies with the Pierce County Sheriff's Department said they found unidentified human remains at a construction site near Lake Tapps on Wednesday morning.
At about 9:15 a.m., deputies said they received a call from a contractor who reported finding the remains in vacant lot on 9th Street East near Evergreen Point.
Deputies said crews were in the process of clearing a lot where an abandoned mobile home once stood and found a trash or recycling bin, emptied it out and found the remains inside, according to investigators.
“We are looking at this as a homicide,” said Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman detective Ed Troyer. Troyer said a preliminary examination indicates the skeleton appears to be that of a female but said that has not been confirmed by the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office.
According to the missing persons data base Namus.gov, there are currently 678 open missing persons cases in Washington state, 111 of those cases are in Pierce County where the body was found and
53 of the Pierce County cases involve women.
Troyer said at this stage, investigators don't even know how long the body had been on this land.
“We still have to identify who the victim is and then start from the beginning and find out how that person went missing or how they came to be here,” said Troyer.
Anyone with information on the investigation is asked to contact detectives with the Sheriff’s Department.
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