We have hope...I'm trying to not be selfish. But if it is not his, thankfully this other family will have some closure.
From Deleware Newspaper..................................
An unlucky fisherman hooked what appeared to be a human leg bone while fishing off the Indian River Inlet, authorities said Friday.
Police said it is too early to speculate whether the bone might belong to either of the two fishermen known to have gone missing in the area.
Hal Brown, deputy director of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and Forensic Sciences Laboratory, said the bone is "more than likely human." Because of its size, he said, the bone appears to be the femur of an adult.
Two days of searching the area failed to discover any more bones, according to Wayne Kline, chief of Division of Parks and Recreation Enforcement for the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. The fisherman hooked the bone after casting off the south side of the inlet in the Delaware Seashore State Park on Wednesday, Kline said in a statement.
The grisly discovery was not announced until after the second search day ended on Friday. Authorities didn't say why information wasn't released after the bone was found Wednesday.
Members of the Delaware State Police Scuba Team searched the inlet following the discovery on Wednesday and again on Friday, spokesman Sgt. Walter Newton said.
Divers searched the inlet extensively in the area where the bone was found, he said.
Earlier searches failed to find any sign of the missing fishermen, he said.
Joel Thompson, 48, of Lewes, was last seen about 11 p.m. April 26, when he left to go fishing off the bulkheads at the base of the Indian River Inlet Bridge. His family notified police when he failed to return home the next morning. Thompson's pickup truck was found in the parking lot at the base of the bridge.
In November 2009, Myungtiki Kim, a 54-year-old fisherman from Vienna, Va., fell off a jetty into the Indian River Inlet and was not seen again.
If the bone found this week is determined to be human, Newton said, police would contact relatives of the missing fishermen to obtain DNA samples for comparison.
In this week's search, divers found no evidence of any type that might contribute to identification, Newton said.
No information was released about the fisherman who found the bone, what he was trying to catch Wednesday or details of how he alerted authorities to the bone his hook and line brought to the surface.
"It's definitely been in the water for some time," Brown said. No flesh remained on the bone, he said, and there were no signs of trauma.
"Beyond that, we're not exactly sure," he added.
Authorities will know more after completion of the bone's study by a forensic anthropologist and DNA analysis, a process expected to take eight to 10 weeks, Brown said.
Between once a week and once a month, the medical examiner's office receives bones found on land all over the state, he said.
"We get a lot of bones that are uncovered that, the first question is, 'Is it human or non-human?'" Brown said, adding that the discovery of bones from aquatic settings is "a fairly rare occurrence."
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From Deleware Newspaper..................................
An unlucky fisherman hooked what appeared to be a human leg bone while fishing off the Indian River Inlet, authorities said Friday.
Police said it is too early to speculate whether the bone might belong to either of the two fishermen known to have gone missing in the area.
Hal Brown, deputy director of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and Forensic Sciences Laboratory, said the bone is "more than likely human." Because of its size, he said, the bone appears to be the femur of an adult.
Two days of searching the area failed to discover any more bones, according to Wayne Kline, chief of Division of Parks and Recreation Enforcement for the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. The fisherman hooked the bone after casting off the south side of the inlet in the Delaware Seashore State Park on Wednesday, Kline said in a statement.
The grisly discovery was not announced until after the second search day ended on Friday. Authorities didn't say why information wasn't released after the bone was found Wednesday.
Members of the Delaware State Police Scuba Team searched the inlet following the discovery on Wednesday and again on Friday, spokesman Sgt. Walter Newton said.
Divers searched the inlet extensively in the area where the bone was found, he said.
Earlier searches failed to find any sign of the missing fishermen, he said.
Joel Thompson, 48, of Lewes, was last seen about 11 p.m. April 26, when he left to go fishing off the bulkheads at the base of the Indian River Inlet Bridge. His family notified police when he failed to return home the next morning. Thompson's pickup truck was found in the parking lot at the base of the bridge.
In November 2009, Myungtiki Kim, a 54-year-old fisherman from Vienna, Va., fell off a jetty into the Indian River Inlet and was not seen again.
If the bone found this week is determined to be human, Newton said, police would contact relatives of the missing fishermen to obtain DNA samples for comparison.
In this week's search, divers found no evidence of any type that might contribute to identification, Newton said.
No information was released about the fisherman who found the bone, what he was trying to catch Wednesday or details of how he alerted authorities to the bone his hook and line brought to the surface.
"It's definitely been in the water for some time," Brown said. No flesh remained on the bone, he said, and there were no signs of trauma.
"Beyond that, we're not exactly sure," he added.
Authorities will know more after completion of the bone's study by a forensic anthropologist and DNA analysis, a process expected to take eight to 10 weeks, Brown said.
Between once a week and once a month, the medical examiner's office receives bones found on land all over the state, he said.
"We get a lot of bones that are uncovered that, the first question is, 'Is it human or non-human?'" Brown said, adding that the discovery of bones from aquatic settings is "a fairly rare occurrence."
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=htt...by-fisherman-in-Delaware-likely-human&h=dec10
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