Human remains found in rural field

Elgin County OPP are investigating — and nearby residents are hoping for answers — after skeletal human remains were discovered at a property northwest of St. Thomas. Police descended on the rural scene near 10194 Turner Road after human remains were discovered at a rural property in the Municipality of Central Elgin Monday. They’ve been there since. “Yesterday, my whole street was filled up. We had firefighters, we had maybe 10 volunteer firefighters and we had maybe five OPP cruisers,” neighbour Kayla Jarry said Thursday. “The forensics vehicle actually got stuck in our back field.”

Jarry, who lives next door to her mom on Turner Road, said the remains were found on her mother’s property by an electrical worker Monday morning around 11 a.m. Turner Road is near a large electrical substation. “We heard police, two OPP cars rushing down the road. I was on my way to school,” said Jarry, who goes to Western University. “I didn’t get home until 5:30 or 6 p.m. … There were a bunch of the OPP in the backyard and nobody knew why.”

Police are hoping a postmortem scheduled for Thursday will help them in the investigation, Const. Jay Denorer said. It’s not deemed suspicious at this time, he said, but that can change.

“Pending the results (of the post-mortem), it will let us know which way the investigation is going to go,” Denorer said.

He said the remains are skeletal and the wet weather and mud was a challenge for investigators.

The investigation is in its early stages and police will release more details when they become available. The Elgin OPP crime unit and OPP forensic services are assisting the coroner with the investigation.