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Tonya Papanikolas ReportingCadaver dogs searched the hills around City Creek Canyon today for human remains and more clues about a skull found this weekend.
Police say it could be a very tough job identifying the person who died. Other than the skull, investigators don't have much to go on.
Workers with a tree-trimming company were about a mile up City Creek Canyon yesterday when one of the men happened upon something he wasn't looking for.
Lt. Mike Ross, Salt Lake Police Department: "He picked up a tree limb that was on the ground, and underneath he found a human skull."
The medical examiner's office examined the skull and determined it was two years old.
Lt. Mike Ross: "No apparent injury to the person. The skull was not damaged at all."
No other bones were found around the skull, so this morning four cadaver dogs were brought in to search the area. Officers hope the dogs will find more clues about who the person could be and how he or she died.
Lt. Mike Ross: "For somebody to be missing for two years and go unnoticed, it could be somebody from the homeless population. I hope not."
Police say homeless people often do camp in City Creek Canyon. While that is one possibility, officers will also be looking into unsolved missing persons cases to see if they can find any leads. One of the big unknowns right now is how the skull got there.
Lt. Mike Ross: "It could have been washed down from somewhere. An animal could have drug it. A number of things could have happened, so that's why we brought up the dogs and hopefully locate more remains."
While medical examiners can likely get DNA from the skull, the state would have to have the right person's DNA on file to identify the remains. Without more leads, this could very well be a tough case to solve.
The dogs searched for five hours today, but they didn't find any more remains or clues.
