Team finds about 90% of a human skeleton at Toscana in Palm Coast, ends search

Searchers wrapped up the excavation for human remains at the Toscana development in Palm Coast after finding about 90% of a human skeleton. They are now awaiting identification of those remains.

Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies, along with a University of South Florida anthropology team and personnel from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the medical examiner’s office, concluded the search on Saturday and turned the site back to the developer, according to a press release from the sheriff's office.

“The skeletal remains were turned over to the medical examiner and they will work to try to identify the individual either by DNA or dental records,” Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said in an interview, “or possibly working with anthropologists.”

Staly said the extent of the findings showed the search was successful.

“It tells you what a great job the entire team did. You are talking toe bones, finger bones. It just shows you the dedication and thoroughness of the entire team.”

The search involved an area about the size of a football field.

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He said the process would have taken much longer without the help from the University of South Florida.

“We could not have done it without the USF team and their equipment in that kind of timeframe,” Staly said.

Staly said without an identification, it would be speculation on whether the findings were connected to a cold case.

“We believe we have recovered enough remains so that identification can be made,” Staly said. “Whatever this case is, it’s kind of in a holding pattern until the ME is able to identify the remains.”

Staly said last week that the findings included fragments of a jaw and skull and two femurs.

The case began when a construction worker on July 18 found what he said looked like a human femur. The sheriff’s office began searching for more bones the next day, but then suspended the search until help could arrive from the University of South Florida.

The USF team started searching along with the sheriff’s office on Wednesday off New Leatherwood Drive at Toscana, a partially-built residential development off Old Kings Road.

The USF team was led by Erin Kimmerle, a forensic anthropologist who led a team in a search for bodies at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, a now-shuttered state school in Marianna.

She said they found 51 bodies in 55 graves at the Dozier school. She likened the search at Toscana to another search at Dozier, when they excavated a site where a dormitory had burned down to find bones.

The USF team had two sifting stations which used water to force dirt through a pair of wire screens. Once the dirt was gone, searchers checked what was left on the screens for any human bones.

The Palm Coast Fire Department supplied a fire truck to provide the water while Flagler County provided small excavators and other equipment to move the dirt around and haul it to the sifting stations.

The sheriff's office is asking anyone with information on the case to call 386-313-4911 or Crime Stoppers of NE Florida at 1-888-277-TIPS (8477). People can also email tips@flaglersheriff.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: USF anthropologists find most of human skeleton in Florida search