Posted on May 19, 2012.
Investigators will have to wait until a post mortem investigation to verify whether the body found Monday in the bushes near Soldier Hill is Ashley Turnbull, a Meyers man missing since Aug. 29, police said. According to a police press release, police consulted a local dentist to review the relevant dental records, but identification of the body is still inconclusive.
The body, described by Chief Inspector Tom Murray as “human remains,” was discovered early Monday afternoon, but police were tight-lipped with further information.
“I think it would be wrong for me to say any more than that at this time,” Mr. Murray said Monday.
Police Information Officer Diane Drayton said yesterday that investigators have not made any determination as to the cause of the death, and have not ruled out homicide.
“They haven’t ruled anything yet,” Ms. Drayton said, adding, “We do keep an open mind, but we do consider the circumstances in this case suspicious.”
She declined to give further details.
A crowd of more than 30 police officers, journalists and onlookers gathered at the junction of the roads leading to Cane Garden Bay and Brewers Bay Monday afternoon. A steep dirt road leading down a hill was cordoned off with crime scene tape, and police were prohibiting access to what they later described as the “bushy, undeveloped” area where the remains were found.
A team of about 20 officials, including some from the Scenes of Crime Unit, participated in the investigation.
At about 5:45 p.m. two police vehicles and a white SUV from the Davis Funeral Home, which held what appeared to be a body wrapped in blue material in its backseat, exited the road on the way to Peebles Hospital.
Mr. Murray said that such procedures, including the cordoning off of the scene, are frequently used when a body is found.
“Just because a scene is dealt with in that way doesn’t mean it will be a murder; it just means we take precautions,” Mr. Murray said.
He added that a doctor was summoned to pronounce the body dead.