The Mesa County Coroner’s Office conducted an autopsy on the remains that were found last week in a Grand Junction-area home.
MESA COUNTY, Colo. — The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Thursday that human remains found at a recently sold house in the Grand Junction area are a human head and hands.
The sheriff’s office was called to a home in the 2900-block of Pinyon Avenue Friday after people cleaning out the house found what they thought were possible human remains.
An autopsy conducted by the Mesa County Coroner’s Office confirmed that the remains are a human head and hands, the sheriff’s office said Thursday.
Authorities haven’t identified the victim and said they won’t have definitive answers until further testing can be completed.
“These types of tests take a significant amount of time, and again, we ask for patience from the public as this investigation continues,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Sam Troester lives across the street and captured the scene on video. “The white hazmat looking suits, that’s what caught my eye at first,” she said. “That’s what was most surprising.”
Troester told 9NEWS her neighbors moved out earlier that morning and the new ones showed up a bit later to start cleaning.
“It turns out that the new owners of the house posted online that they were looking to sell a bunch of the garbage that was left behind, scrap metal and things that people could repurpose, and there was a deep freezer that was posted up for grabs,” said Troester.
Troester said the people who stopped by to pick up the freezer asked if they could use her restroom and that’s when she started asking questions.
“I let them in and cautiously I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ And they continued to tell me that they opened the freezer to empty it so they could transport it and they said a head fell out,” said Troester. “A human head!”
The sheriff’s office said investigators searched the property for other body parts but found nothing. As of now, they don’t know who this person is, what happened or when it happened.
“I feel so bad,” said Troester. “I would hate to have to be the family missing that loved one right now. It would be heartbreaking.”
The sheriff’s office said the case is being investigated as a homicide. It was unclear how long the remains had been inside the house before the discovery was made.
Anyone with information on the case can contact Mesa County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Kandyce Stuckenschneider at 970-244-3266.
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