Human remains found by workers in York County: Sheriff’s Office

CLOVER, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — What started as a typical day on the job turned out to be anything but normal for a group of construction workers in York County Tuesday. While working on a road-widening project near Lake Wylie, they found human remains along Highway 557 and Ridge Road.

It’s a mystery that’s proving to be difficult to solve for York County deputies.

“The skeletal remains. So not a body. Just bones, really,” said York County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Trent Faris. “We don’t think it’s been there for like hundreds of years or anything like that. The best estimation that we could think of is probably a year or year and a half, maybe two years at most. But the bones were in a condition where we could tell that it was a human, but we couldn’t tell what gender it was.”

Faris says the workers were clearing debris and trees when they found the bones in a storm drain off the road. So, anyone passing by would’ve seen it.

“We only have 11 total missing person cases that remain unsolved at the moment that date back all the way to the seventies,” Faris said. “We’ve checked, none of the missing people fit any kind of demographic or area that we were looking for, for any of our missing people. So, we don’t think that’s any of our cases. So, it’s actually a real mystery that detectives are working on right now.”

Authorities say there is no danger to the public but they’re asking the community for help.

“That is a heavily traveled road,” Faris said. “Any kind of information, maybe between the last year or two years, somebody may have seen somebody walking down there. It’s a lot of traffic. A lot of people walk up and down that road. It’s going to be really hard.”

Officials say the bones were sent to a Columbia forensic anthropologist for further testing. They hope to have a gender soon – and with that, they’ll begin the process of identifying the person and get more information about the cause of death.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.