Human Remains Found in Rural Bates County

On 11/3/2020 at approximately 1:30 pm the Bates County Sheriff’s Office received a call of an article of clothing that was found in a bean field in rural southwest Bates County. The article of clothing potentially had human remains with it. Detectives from the Bates County Sheriff’s Office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control responded to the area. Once it was confirmed that the items were in fact human remains the Detectives contacted Bates County Coroner Greg Mullinax. Coroner Mullinax began working to coordinate with the Forensic Anthropologist to respond and assist in recovery of the human remains. At approximately 730 pm a team of Forensic Anthropologists from Washburn University out of Topeka Kansas arrived on scene. A team consisting of the Bates County Coroner, Detectives from the Bates County Sheriff’s Office, Detectives from Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Anthropologist began the task of recovering the human remains. At approximately midnight the human remains were recovered and were turned over to the Coroner to conduct a forensic autopsy and to identify the remains. Identification of the remains may take a couple of weeks. This is an ongoing investigation and there will be no additional information available until proper identification is obtained.