BAZETTA — For at least a month, Jeff Easterday, his wife, Sue, and their two dogs passed what they thought was a deer carcass during walks near their home on Geauga-Portage Easterly Road.
But Saturday, one part of the pile was lying in the ditch — and it clearly was a human skull, Easterday said Wednesday.
After the Easterday’s 911 call to police, who swept the area into Sunday, he and his neighbors are unsettled but not surprised the still unidentified remains were found on their rural road. It seems to be a dumping ground for garbage and unwanted pets, he said.
‘‘You hear cars stopping all the time,’’ Easterday said. ‘‘We always watch. If we hear something, we run up the road to look. It only takes seconds.’’
While they know it’s likely an adult, Bazetta police still don’t know much about the remains, found partly inside a garbage bag on the south side of the road about 300 feet from the Easterday’s home. Easterday said he found the skeleton about 8 feet away from the skull.
The remains will be sent to Washington, D.C., on Friday for further examination by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. It could be six to eight weeks before a report is made to reveal information such as age, race and gender.
Meanwhile, Bazetta police said they have received inquiries from all over the country from people looking for lost loved ones.
It’s the second discovery of such remains. A skeleton was found in July 2006 on Warren Meadville Road near Mosquito Lake State Park. The Institute of Pathology determined the remains were of a black man who was older than 50 when he died and who stood about 5-foot-10. The case remains unsolved.
Bazetta police Chief Chuck Sayers said he does have concerns that two similar incidents occurred in the township in two years.
‘‘Once in 10 years is too much for me,’’ he said.
But the rural area, he said, ‘‘provides an opportunity for people to do things.’’
‘‘Geographically, it’s in the center of Trumbull County,’’ Sayers said. ‘‘That would be an ideal place. It’s not heavily traveled. Any given direction is an easy in and an easy out.’’
Some residents in the Geauga-Portage Easterly Road area said after the latest discovery, they’ll keep a closer eye on the traffic. Others said the bones winding up there was just by chance due to their rural surroundings.
With woods on both sides of the road, cars regularly dump garbage in the ditches and every year drop off kittens, cats and dogs they don’t want anymore, said Easterday, who’s lived there about 10 years.
‘‘People dump garbage all the time,’’ said Ron Urchek, 997 Geauga-Portage Easterly Road, adding his wife, Carolyn, walks the road regularly. ‘‘It’s hard to say how long it’s been laying there.’’
Easterday said he will continue to keep an eye on the traffic, which often also stops to look at deer and turkey that roam the woods. Urchek, who operates a garage specializing in British cars, said he gets traffic from Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Akron and Canton. Police do patrol the area, he said.
‘‘It’s a little scary, but we go by there and see garbage bags thrown out all the time,’’ Urchek said. ‘‘You just don’t expect bones to be there.’’
Sayers said the township’s already begun extra patrols in its rural areas ‘‘to make sure these things don’t occur as frequently.’’
‘‘We’re going to work on this until we can’t work any more,’’ Sayers said.
Urchek said the discovery won’t scare him off.
‘‘It’s still peaceful, and I’m not going to be packing any rods or anything,’’ Urchek said.
dloreno@tribtoday.com
