A woman searching for her lost dog in Ohio discovered a set of bones that turned out to be a woman who vanished five years ago, authorities said this week.
The remains were found last month in a wooded area on the east side of Youngstown, Ohio, police said Tuesday. They were wrapped in a cloth and taken to the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office.
Authorities later confirmed the remains were Amy Hambrick, 29, a mother who disappeared after leaving home on November 11, 2017 to visit a friend in North Jackson.
Youngstown police Chief of Detectives Capt. Jason Simon said the woman who found the remains was searching for her dog when she found them.
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Dr. Loren Lease of the anthropology department at Youngstown State University, and forensic dentists assembled the bones and determine it was Hambrick based on her jawbone and dental records, authorities said.
However, the condition of the remains has prompted her cause of death to remain undetermined. It was not clear how long the remains had been there.
"Every investigative avenue was utilized over the last five years, including countless interviews, searches of residences, the use of cadaver dogs and the serving of legal process on digital and cellular records," Simon said.
Despite the discovery, investigators are still trying to determine how Hambrick ended up in the woods and how she died.
"Someone knows what happened," Simon said.
Hambrick left behind a daughter who was 10-years-old at the time of his disappearance.
