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Fairfield County remains identified
Posted: 05.20.2009 at 11:39 PM
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What happened in a wooded area in Jenkinsville is still very much a mystery. 79-year-old William Hart disappeared early morning October 5, 1999.

An incident report shows James Hart was bringing his brother breakfast that morning. When he got to the house, William was nowhere to be found. The door, usually locked, was open and the television was on.

"He wasn't the type of person to just wander off," says Hart's niece, Gail Turner.

Turner remembers investigators covering miles searching for leads. Everything eventually dried up until 2006. That's when a man, marking trees in the wooded area just two miles from Hart's house, found part of a skull.

"We used DNA to match the remains to William Hart," says Fairfield County Coroner Barkley Ramsey.

Ramsey says Hart died the same week he disappeared. The coroner still can't say why the 79-year-old died. He says, "There's not enough remains to rule an actual cause of death."

Turner says, "I have my doubts because I know he wouldn't just wander off. Those officers searched for days and covered the area, then his remains mysteriously show up. Where's the rest of his body? Why was the skull only found?"

A question forensic anthropologist Dr. Ted Rathbun finds interesting. He says, "Animals do not completely eat all the bones. So it's highly unlikely to just find a skull."

Even though Gail Turner and her family still have many questions, they're happy for the closure. Now they can start to move on.

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