INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Authorities say that they hope DNA testing will reveal the owner of a severed hand and arm found along the Little Blue River in eastern Jackson County.
On Monday afternoon, two kayakers on the river reported finding the bones near the Little Blue Trace Trail near R.D. Mize and Necessary roads.
Authorities say that hand and arm were found together in one piece, but there is no word on how long the bones were there, or if they belonged to a man or woman. They say that DNA testing on the remains could be completed as soon as Tuesday afternoon, and that will help investigators to determine who the arm did not belong to.
According to police, the remains do not belong to Summer Shipp, an Independence woman who disappeared in December of 2004 while conducting a door-to-door survey in Independence.
Parts of Shipp’s remains were found along a nearby stretch of the Little Blue River in October, 2007. No charges were ever filed in that case.
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Sharp said that he would not speculate if the remains belong to any specific missing person in the metro at this point, saying that it was just too early in the investigation to say.
Independence Police say that they are combing over missing persons files, but are asking families with missing loved ones to contact authorities to help with their investigation.
