Banks Co. Sheriff’s Office Seeking Help to Identify Human Remains

The GBI and Banks County Sheriff’s office are still searching for anyone with information that could identify the human remains that were found in Commerce this February.

According to Banks County Sheriff’s spokesperson Carissa McFaddin, the remains were originally found by a realtor off of Highway 59 near New Salem United Methodist Church in Commerce.

Since the initial discovery of the remains, the GBI has determined that the remains are of a female. Jeremy Howell is the GBI case agent for this particular case and said they’ve been able to make other distinctions about this woman.

“Based upon the anthropological report, we do know that she is female, 30-44 years of age, black ancestry with possible Hispanic ancestry as well,” said Howell. “Height of 4’9-5’6 and missing from 0-4 years.”

They also have the ability to do dental comparison and Howell says they sent some of the remains to the FBI to extract DNA in hopes that in a few months, a DNA comparison could be done.

According to GBI Assistant Agent Jesse Maddox, investigators are also relying on the hopeful recognition of items found near the remains.

“There were some portions of fabric that we found- white, grey and blue in color,” said Maddox. “There was some women’s clothing, a metal ring and a butterfly necklace. Those are some of the items that we have out there hoping that someone will see and recognize one.”

Maddox said that this case is being treated as a homicide case.

“We treat any unknown death investigation as if it were a murder case,” said Maddox. “However, we don’t know a cause of death, we don’t know anything to that aspect right now. We treat it as if foul play was involved until we have evidence to show the contrary. And at this time, human remains in a wooded area don’t really have any reason to be there.”

To provide information or to view the items that were found, contact Jeremy Howell at 706.552.2309 or the Banks County Sheriff’s Office at 706-677-2248.