CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Police spent hours on Lexington Road near Holly, after a city employee discovered human remains on Monday afternoon. CCPD said the employee found them in a “wet well” that was approximately 40 feet deep.
Different agencies from CCFD to the Nueces County Medical Examiner were on the scene and Senior Officer Antonio Contreras described how the remains were retrieved.
"It [the well] was full of wastewater. So they had to drain it to safely to get the fire personnel in there," Contreras said.
KRIS 6 News anchor Clara Benetiz-Cortez spoke to Police Chief Mike Markle on what, "human remains" meant.
"It means human remains," Markle said.
Benetiz-Cortez then asked if it an entire body was found. Markle responded by saying, "Almost. We found human remains. We’ll leave it at that," the Chief said.
Markle adds that he understands the urgency people want, but reminds the public that the process needs to be thorough.
"I understand there’s been families waiting, loved ones anticipating quick results. But we need to take our time, and make sure we do this right, and the investigation handled properly," Markle said.
Markle added that the police department does not identify remains and gave an estimated timeline on when this individual may be identified.
"That process is happening now. It may take some time to do that. Probably a month to 6 weeks, depending on what they have available for forensics," Markle said.
Dr. Rajesh Kannan, the Nueces County Chief Medical Examiner, set expectations for the process.
"Nothing is solved in 48 hours. In TV shows they do DNA in 30 minutes. That doesn’t happen. Real life is different. It takes time. We are very few in number, we have 500 well-trained forensic pathologists in the country. Corpus Christi has 2 of them," Dr. Kannan said.
WATCH THE NUECES COUNTY CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER'S FULL INTERVIEW
The M.E. could not give specifics on this case.
"The reason is, after times passes, everything is not the same. We have to go backward, basically. Work with agencies, they have to contact whoever they have to contact, so it takes time," Dr. Kannan said.
Police have not linked the remains to any person reported missing. They did say officers checked this area in the early days of searching for Caleb Harris, who was reported missing in early March.
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