PREBLE COUNTY — Investigators are looking for answers after someone’s skeletal remains were found in Preble County.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 11:00, Preble County Sheriff Mike Simpson said people found the bones in an empty building on a rural piece of property off Eaton-Lewisburg Road Tuesday night.
Right now, the sheriff’s office knows that the bones belonged to a male and were sitting there long enough to decompose.
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Simpson said investigators did find clothing items on the remains.
They were taken to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office for testing.
Crime scene tape is still blocking the two small buildings on the property more than 24 hours after the initial discovery.
Simpson said that the tape will come down within the next day or two, as most of the investigation is now happening in the coroner’s office lab.
News Center 7’s Taylor Robertson spoke to a woman who said she lived on the property over a decade ago.
“I was definitely shocked. I did find out a couple of years ago that there were people squatting there, which I thought was kind of crazy,” Brittney Smith said.
Simpson said the sheriff’s office isn’t aware of anyone living on the property.
“But that’s kind of why, you know, we’re hopeful we can identify who this person is, so we can figure out, you know, why were they there?” Simpson said. “There are a couple buildings back on that property. One of those buildings is where we located the skeletal remains.”
Smith said after she learned about the bones, her first thought was that they could belong to a woman she graduated high school with.
A Preble County cold case victim, Tiffany Orona, disappeared in 2021.
“And that’s what everybody was kind of hoping, but not hoping for,” Smith said.
But Simpson said the sheriff’s office believes the bones belong to a male.
“If somebody saw somebody there on the property that they knew, that would be helpful for us to look into. And it certainly gives us another path to go down,” Simpson said.
Anyone with information is asked to call dispatch and ask to be forwarded to detectives.
Simpson said it’s not clear how long it will take to get answers.
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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