Police continue work to identify remains found outside Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Ore. – Police are still working to identify the human remains found in the Applegate area.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office says the remains were found outside rural Jacksonville on Sunday. Investigators don’t want to reveal the exact location where they were found due to the nature of the investigation.

Right now, the situation is being treated as a “suspicious” death investigation, according to a press release.

A forensic pathologist and medical examiner team are currently working to positively identify the remains.

JCSO public information officer Aaron Lewis says when situations like this arise, it’s easy to hope it will open new doors into cold case investigations.

“I know the detectives hold those cold cases and think about them often,” Officer Lewis said. “I’m not saying that this is one of our cold case missing people, but there’s always that hope.”

A year ago, human remains were also found in the Applegate area.

At the time, investigators believed the remains might have belonged to 43-year-old Ruch woman Stephanie Anne Warner, who has now been missing for nearly 11 years. That body was eventually linked to an unrelated missing person investigation out of Ashland.

As of now, Warner’s missing person case has never been solved.