Police: Human remains possibly found in recently burned garage in Dayton

DAYTON — Possible human remains were found Thursday inside a Dayton garage that burned to the ground earlier this month, police said.

Crews were called around 11:30 a.m. to the first block of Fountain Avenue after a man who told dispatchers he was contracted to clean up the site reported he found a bone.

“I was cleaning out this garage and there’s a bone that looks like it belongs to a body. We don’t know if we want to keep messing with it or not,” the caller said. “It’s a big bone.”

The caller then called back a second time and told dispatchers there are “human body parts laying around the burnt out garage,” according to emergency dispatch records.

Police responded, but left around 1:40 p.m. Officers returned around 3 p.m. and secured it with police tape.

Dayton police Sgt. Robert Cligner said at the time officers did not think they were human, but when they got to the coroner’s office, they learned the remains might be human.

Although they returned with lights and sirens activated in hopes of catching the cleaning crew, they already gone, Cligner said.

News Center 7 saw Montgomery County Coroner Dr. Kent Harshbarger arrive at the garage around 4 p.m. and did not leave until shortly before 6 p.m.

Homicide detectives also responded, and police will remain there overnight to protect the area, Cligner said.

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Firefighters responded Sept. 17 after the detached garage was found engulfed. Firefighters said at that time they considered the fire suspicious.