ERIE COUNTY — Huron Township is typically an area people visit to relax and enjoy the view. One of their main attractions is the Huron River, where people can enjoy boat rides, kayak and walk along the water.
For Dana Straub, it's where she comes to enjoy her lunch daily.
“It’s always calm, safe and quiet here,” said Straub.
However, a gruesome discovery on a kayak trip has the Erie County Sheriff's office working to identify remains found in the Huron River nearly two weeks ago.
“Our initial reaction was it must have just been an accident; someone probably fell over. But when they released that it was foul play, then fear really did set in for us,” Straub.
On the morning of May 16th, a body was discovered by a recreational kayaker in the marshy area of the river, 1000 feet south of the Ohio State Route 2 bridge. The Huron fire department was able to recover the remains from the marsh.
Erie County Sheriff Paul Sigsworth said the remains were taken to the Lucas County coroner's office, and based on how the body was found, he suspects foul play.
“The body was wrapped in a bed sheet and had ropes tied around it, both near the feet and near the waist area. Now, those bindings were not very tight, but the fact that there were ropes wrapped around it in a bed sheet, that certainly could indicate that there's some foul play involved,” said Sigsworth.
Sigsworth added that because the body was left in the water for a considerable amount of time, the coroner's office has been having trouble identifying the remains.
“It was significantly decomposed, but the coroner was able to tell us it's the body of a black male and they believe he is in the 20s to 30s age range. But that’s a rough estimate at this point, so they're continuing to work on it,” said Sigsworth.
And while the community waits for the remains to be identified, Straub is being more careful.
“It makes you a little bit more aware of your surroundings, I'm constantly looking at the edge of the water now, which is weird because I never did that before,” said Straub.
Sigsworth says there is no reason for residents to be concerned.
Officials are working to determine how the remains ended up on the west side of the Huron River.
“Part of the issue here is the river's been up very high at times because of all the rain we've had recently. So, it's hard to judge how these remains ended up over in the marshy area but it could be because the whole river basin was flooded,” said Sigsworth.
But they are hopeful that once they get an identification, those questions will be answered and determine what happened to the unknown man.
Sigsworth said it can take weeks before they are able to identify the remains, but once they do, they will ask the public for assistance, possibly with some of the tattoos on the victim's body.
