news-record.com

MEBANE (MCT) — Investigators found human remains in a wooded area of northeastern Alamance County.

Investigators spent Sunday combing the area along Dickey Mill Road, where remains of a skull, torso and ankle bones were found. Sheriff Terry Johnson said the remains have been in the woods for several months and that authorities do not know the person's identity.

The SBI is assisting in the investigation, which is being treated as a homicide. The sheriff's department also contacted Burlington police, who are investigating a report of a missing person who was last seen in September.

Hunters called 911 shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday to report their finding just off a dirt road on the land amid a thicket of pines. Sheriff's investigators immediately started canvassing the area, which is mostly farmland on the two-lane road off of N.C. 49 near the Pleasant Grove community.

But the area where the bones were found wasn't touched until Sunday morning. A deputy guarded the area until daybreak Sunday when a team of investigators showed up.

Authorities did not say if they could tell the age or gender of the remains, which will be taken to the state Medical Examiner's Office in Chapel Hill. But Johnson said investigators have a pretty good idea of the victim's identity.

The most recent missing person's case being investigated in the Alamance County is that of Tamara Ann Liner, a 49-year-old woman who was last seen July 23 at her job at McDonald's on Graham-Hopedale Road.

After Liner's son reported her missing on Sept. 12, Burlington police searched Liner's home on Holland Ave. Police found her Toyota Camry in the driveway, both sets of Liner's keys and her two cats. Investigators also said they found brown stains that appeared to be dried blood on two doors and several doorknobs.