Loggers Find Human Remains Near Mount Rainier Entrance

BONNEY LAKE, WA — Detectives are investigating after a logging team stumbled across human remains while working in a remote patch of woods near the Carbon River.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department says the logging crew had been working in the woods not far from the entrance to Mount Rainier National Park, when they stumbled upon the remains early Thursday morning, and called for law enforcement.

Once on scene, investigators determined that the remains had not been buried, but had been scattered by animals or by the loggers as they worked in the area. Eventually, a search of the surrounding land turned up a skull, several bones, some scraps of clothes and a rifle.

The remains have been passed to the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office, who will determine their gender, age, how long the remains were out in the woods, and hopefully ultimately the person's identity.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department is also urging anyone who may know anything about the remains or who could identify them, to give deputies a call.