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IDU170415 - historic Native American remains; ID: two child UIDs found in badger hole
Topic Started: Apr 18 2017, 07:56 AM (92 Views)
tatertot
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http://www.ktvb.com/news/local/human-remai...ounty/432025036

Child's remains found in Elmore County badger hole
KTVB , KTVB 6:07 AM. MDT April 18, 2017

MOUNTAIN HOME - Idaho Fish and Game officers discovered what appears to the skeletal remains of a young child just north of Mountain Home, officials said Monday.

The remains, believed to be from a 1- to 5-year-old child, were found partially uncovered inside a badger hole on Saturday, the Elmore County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

Officials believe the remains had been buried for an extended period of time, and noted that there were no fibrous materials such as clothing found with the bones.

The sheriff's office consulted with archeologists and a tribal representative before removing the remains, and said that experts do not believe the bones to be Native American, based on where they were found.

Archeologists are planning to conduct further tests to see if the bones are connected to the nearby Oregon Trail network.

The sheriff's office says the investigation is ongoing, and that they have not ruled out the possibility of foul play. Deputies are working with several neighboring agencies to determine possible links to cases outside of Elmore County.
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tatertot
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https://www.eastidahonews.com/2017/04/sheri...-deorr-kunz-jr/

SHERIFF: REMAINS OF CHILD FOUND ARE ‘ABSOLUTELY NOT’ DEORR KUNZ JR.
Updated at 4:30 pm, April 18th, 2017 By: Stephan Rockefeller,

UPDATE:
EastIdahoNews.com has received a large number of emails and phones calls regarding the remains found in Elmore County and the possibility that they are the remains of DeOrr Kunz Jr. We reached back out to the Elmore County Sheriff’s Office and asked for a direct answer.

“There is no way the remains could be that of DeOrr Kunz,” Elmore County Undersheriff Greg Berry told EastIdahoNews.com. “Absolutely not possible, these bones have been in the desert a lot longer then that.”

The undersheriff went on to say the preliminary estimates are putting the remains in the desert at between 15 and 20 years old.

Berry said the testing on the remains is being done at Boise State University and won’t start for another week.

ORIGINAL STORY:
MOUNTAIN HOME — The remains of a toddler found near Mountain Home Saturday are being tested today to determine the age of the child.

Elmore County Sheriff Mike Hollinshead tells EastIdahoNews.com the child “between 1 and 5 years old” was originally buried in the ground, but a badger recently dug up the remains.

“The remains were discovered by Idaho Fish and Game employees working in the area,” Hollinshead explained. “One of the employees saw bones and later discovered a human skull.”

Analysis of the remains is in its preliminary stages, but Hollinshead says investigators aren’t ruling anything out at this point. There were no fibrous materials, such as clothing, located with the remains.

“We have not ruled out criminal activity and we are treating the remains as we would in any homicide investigation,” he said. “The information we have today indicates the body has been there for quite some time. It appears to have been buried longer than two to five years.”

Archaeologists are investigating the remains to determine if there is a connection to the nearby Oregon Trail network. The BLM archaeologist for the area where the bones were found said they did not exhibit Native American characteristics based on terrain locations.

Members of the Elmore County Sheriff’s Office, Idaho Department of Fish and Game and Bureau of Land Management retrieved the remains Saturday after consulting with archaeologists and a tribal representative.

Hollinshead says there are no indications of the gender of the remains, but anthropologists will start working today to determine how old the child was when he or she died.

According to the Smithsonian Natural Museum of Natural History, skeletal remains can be good age markers because teeth and bones mature at fairly predictable and documented rates.

Teeth are the most accurate age indicators for toddlers and individuals up to the age of 21. Like many other mammals, humans have two sets of teeth – “baby” teeth and permanent teeth.

Hollinshead says once the age is determined, officials will work to see how long the remains have been buried.

“At that point, investigators will have a time frame to potentially test DNA against potential missing children,” Hollinshead said.
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tatertot
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https://www.ksl.com/?sid=43913936&nid=1418

Sheriff: Remains of child found appear to have been buried 'for quite some time'
By Stephan Rockefeller, EastIdahoNews.com | Posted Apr 18th, 2017 @ 11:39am

MOUNTAIN HOME, Idaho — The remains of a toddler found near Mountain Home Saturday were being tested Tuesday to determine the age of the child.

Elmore County Sheriff Mike Hollinshead told EastIdahoNews.com the child “between one and five years old” was originally buried in the ground, but a badger recently dug up the remains.

“The remains were discovered by Idaho Fish and Game employees working in the area,” Hollinshead explained. “One of the employees saw bones and later discovered a human skull.”

Analysis of the remains is in its preliminary stages, but Hollinshead says investigators aren’t ruling anything out at this point. There were no fibrous materials, such as clothing, located with the remains.

“We have not ruled out criminal activity and we are treating the remains as we would in any homicide investigation,” he said. “The information we have today indicates the body has been there for quite some time. It appears to have been buried longer than two to five years.”

Archaeologists are investigating the remains to determine if there is a connection to the nearby Oregon Trail network. The BLM archaeologist for the area where the bones were found said they did not exhibit Native American characteristics based on terrain locations.

Members of the Elmore County Sheriff’s Office, Idaho Department of Fish and Game and Bureau of Land Management retrieved the remains Saturday after consulting with archaeologists and a tribal representative.

Hollinshead says there are no indications of the gender of the remains, but anthropologists will start working today to determine how old the child was when he or she died.

According to the Smithsonian Natural Museum of Natural History, skeletal remains can be good age markers because teeth and bones mature at fairly predictable and documented rates.

Teeth are the most accurate age indicators for toddlers and individuals up to the age of 21. Like many other mammals, humans have two sets of teeth – “baby” teeth and permanent teeth.

Hollinshead says once the age is determined, officials will work to see how long the remains have been buried.

“At that point, investigators will have a time frame to potentially test DNA against potential missing children,” Hollinshead said.
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tatertot
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http://www.mountainhomenews.com/story/2406149.html

Breaking: Burial site contained two sets of remains
Monday, April 24, 2017 ~ Updated 1:21 PM

Elmore County Sheriff Mike Hollinshead announced on Monday that a burial site discovered north of Mountain Home on April 15 actually contained two sets of human remains.

During the course of the investigation, authorities determined that two children were buried on top of one another in the vicinity of Hot Creek Road.

The sheriff estimated unofficially that the first set of skeletal remains were from a child between three and five years old, and the second set were from a child four to nine years old.

Officers from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game found the burial site by accident. Hollinshead said that a badger had pushed the bones out of the ground when it created an exit point from its burrow.

Members of the Elmore County Sheriff’s Office, Idaho Fish and Game and Bureau of Land Management recovered the remains after consultation with archaeologists and a tribal representative.

There were no fibrous materials such as clothing located with the remains. However, an initial investigation indicated that the children were buried at the site 15 to 20 years ago.

Officials at Boise State University are aiding in the forensics part of the investigation. In addition, investigators will use carbon dating to determine exactly when the bodies were buried.

The sheriff's department emphasized that the human remains didn't exhibit the characteristics of a Native American burial site. This was based on terrain locations and a visit by a Four Rivers archaeologist.

This is an ongoing investigation, and the sheriff’s department hasn't ruled out foul play or criminal activity. Investigators are also working with surrounding law enforcement agencies to determine possible links to any missing child cases outside of Elmore County.
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tatertot
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http://www.wbrc.com/story/35246286/idaho-r...ail-badger-hole

Idaho: Remains of 2 people found in Oregon Trail badger hole
Tuesday, April 25th 2017, 11:48 pm EDT
By KEITH RIDLER
Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A fluke discovery of human bones protruding from a badger hole in southwestern Idaho has investigators trying to determine if they have discovered a double homicide or the disturbed grave of young 19th century pioneers who died going west on the nearby Oregon Trail, authorities said Tuesday.

Authorities thought one body was at the site in high desert sagebrush steppe discovered by state fish and game workers who stumbled across the bones while out on a routine patrol.

But a forensic anthropologist determined that the remains are of a child between ages 4 and 6 and a teenager or young adult between the ages of 16 and 20.

Carbon dating results expected in several weeks should help determine when they died, said Greg Berry, the undersheriff of Elmore County.

Investigators hope that information will help them conclude whether the site was an unmarked Oregon Trail grave site or a possible dumping location for homicide victims.

"It's a mystery, for sure," Berry said.

The Oregon Trail during the 1840s through the 1860s stretched about 2,000 miles (3,220 kilometers) from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon - crossing Idaho through the Snake River Plain.

Historians estimate that up to 400,000 pioneers attempted it and other trails that branched off it, with death estimates of those heading west ranging from 4 to 10 percent. While pioneers' diaries have reports of children falling and dying under wagon wheels, diphtheria was thought their main cause of death.

So-called "bomb carbon dating" of the bones will determine whether the two lived before or after the introduction of atomic radiation to the atmosphere from atmospheric nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s, said Samantha Blatt, the Boise State University anthropologist examining the bones. Depending on the results, additional tests could narrow the period when the two were living.

Blatt said she has not determined the genders of the two and that "the appearance of the bones suggests that they are not too recent."

"It is certainly possibly these individuals were from the time of the Oregon Trail, but more tests will need to be done to conclude anything for sure," Blatt said.

Investigators have no evidence to suggest how the two died and will decide after the carbon dating whether to pay for additional testing to determine the cause, said Elmore County Sheriff Mike Hollinshead.

A main part of the Oregon Trail lies about 5 miles (8 kilometers) south of the site where the bones were found. Pioneers were known to spread out to the sides of the trail in search of flat areas where their livestock could graze, said Shane Wilson, an archaeologist with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

"The Oregon Trail wasn't a single path," he said. "If there's no feed, you're going to go where feed is with your oxen or pulling animals."

Elmore County authorities have asked other Idaho law enforcement agencies to provide information about old cases of missing children.

The fish and game workers on April 15 were checking the licenses of ground squirrel hunters when they found the bones on federally owned land about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the small city of Mountain Home. There are badgers in the area that also hunt the squirrels.
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tatertot
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May they Rest in Peace.
http://kval.com/news/nation-world/remains-...ndreds-of-years

Remains found in Elmore County badger hole date back hundreds of years
by Amika Osumi
Tuesday, July 18th 2017

ELMORE COUNTY, Idaho (KBOI) — The Elmore County Sheriff's Office says remains found in Elmore County back in April are not connected to a crime.

Investigators say the remains date back to the time period between 1436 to 1632.

Back in April, Idaho Fish and Game discovered two sets of human remains near Hot Creek Road in Mountain Home.

The bones had been uprooted by a badger.

"At that time the sheriff's office handled it as a possible homicide," said Mike Hollinshead, Elmore County Sheriff.

They sent the remains to Bose State Univeresity and eventually samples were sent to two separate labs in Florida and Arizona for carbon testing.

Both tests concluded that the bones were hundreds of years old.

"The remains are between the years 1436 and 1632 the report also stated the remains are also consistent with some Native American groups but the observation in and of itself does not, nor could not, prove racial origin," Hollinshead said.

Now, this case which originally was treated as a possible homicide case, is no longer being investigated by the Elmore County Sheriff's office. The sheriff's office turned the remains over to the Bureau of Land Management.

Multiple tribes in the area are already claiming the remains.

"Our plan is to reach out the the Indian tribes who may be affected and we will work with them to identify through consultation what the appropriate next steps would be," said Lara Douglas, Boise district manager for the Bureau of Land Management.

Initially, the sheriff's office thought the remains might be small child remains, however the tests inconclusively estimate one set of remains was about 20 years-old and the other was about 10 to 15 years-old. The genders and cause of death are undetermined, and they did not look into these specifics.
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