The remains of a badly decomposed female found on Old Yacht Club Road earlier this month have been sent to the University of North Texas Anthropology Department for further testing.
Port Arthur Police Sgt. Scott Gaspard said the remains, which are basically bones, were sent to the university in order for experts to extract DNA.
“This will tell, with professional certainty, whether the remains or male or female and race,” Gaspard said. “They are also able to do reconstruction which will show the height of the individual.”
Gaspard said the process could take weeks.
The university’s  Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology analyzes between 100 to 150 forensically significant cases each year with a majority of the cases submitted by law enforcement agencies and medical examiner offices.
The laboratory recently joined the DNA Identification Laboratory to form the Center for Human Identification, providing a unique approach to remains analysis and identification in which anthropological and molecular analyses are combined when investigating skeletal remains cases, according to the university website.
The badly decomposed body was found in a field about 500 feet north of the roadway by workers walking along Old Yacht Club Road toward the Veterans Memorial Bridge on July 6.
The workers saw something strange in the brush area and when they realized what they had found, called police.
The case is currently being investigated as a homicide.
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