Human remains found inside house in 200 block of West Third Street in Mansfield OH
Mansfield police are investigating the remains of a human body found Monday afternoon inside a vacant house in the 200 block of West Third Street.
The Richland County Coroner's Office contacted a forensic anthropologist team from Mercyhurst University that arrived Tuesday morning from Erie, Pennsylvania, to assist with identification. The forensic investigative team members have assisted Mansfield police in the past on other cases.
Coroner's Investigator Bob Ball on Tuesday said the remains are in a small area in a crawl space in the attic over the rear of the house. Ball said some structural work is being done by a contractor to help open up the area inside so investigators from Mercyhurst can better do their job.
"The biggest part of this is going to be for identification purposes, and then we'll go from there," Ball said.
Ball said he hopes the person can be identified with dental records. This would be the quickest way.
Ball said anything like this situation is always considered suspicious. "It's a homicide until it's not a homicide," he said. "Once we get the identification, hopefully the evidence will show us one way or another. They have been there a little bit."
Ball estimated the area is 3 feet high and the whole area is a length of 12 feet or so where investigators are working.
Mansfield police Lt. Detective Rob Skropits and members of the Mansfield Police Department were on the scene Monday around 6 p.m. The two-story white house, which had two separate addresses or residences, had been cordoned off with red and yellow tape.
Ball said people who are fixing up the house called police upon finding the human remains.
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Mansfield OH police investigating discovery of human remains in house
