Skeletal human remains found near Cedar City

Iron County Sheriff's Office vehicle near Cedar City, Utah, Sept,. 15, 2020 | File photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

CEDAR CITY — A group of workers building a trail south of Cedar City uncovered skeletal human remains Wednesday afternoon.

The bones are believed to have been there for at least a year and possibly several years or more, Iron County Sheriff Ken Carpenter told Cedar City News.

“It wasn’t a complete skeleton. It’s been there for awhile, a long while,” he said, adding that very little clothing was found with the remains.

The area where the bones were found is reportedly within or near the Shurtz Canyon trail system, a couple miles south of Cedar City and east of Hamilton Fort.

“As far as we can tell, it doesn’t fit in with any missing persons cases here in Iron County,” Carpenter said.

The remains have been sent to a forensic lab for anthropological testing. 

“There were some teeth there. We’re hoping that they can give us some DNA evidence, as far as race, sex and those types of things that can help us narrow down this person and help point us in the right direction,” Carpenter explained. “Some approximate age information, anything that they give us, can help.”

“We don’t know how much information they’re going to be able to give us because the skeleton’s not in great condition,” he said. “But we hope the anthropological review will provide DNA and other forensic evidence that will help us identify this individual.”

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.

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