Chief Deputy Johnnie Walter talks with a West Virginia Medical Examiner while Capt. Tim Stapleton and Sheriff K.C. Bohrer stand by on Thursday.
A West Virginia medical examiner joined officers with the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department this morning at the site where human remains were located yesterday by mushroom hunters. Those remains have been removed from an isolated spot along a small creek where they were found sitting against a rock. Skeletal remains were largely contained by clothing and included a jaw and skull, which the medical examiner will use to positively identify the person. Also recovered at the scene was a handgun and a bullet.Sheriff K.C. Bohrer said police believe the remains to be that of Jesse Willey, who went missing in 2018 from a farm off Highland Ridge where he worked as a hunting guide. That farm is where the remains were found on Wednesday.Sheriff Bohrer said the items found with the remains are consistent with what investigators know about Willey at the time he went missing. He said there’s no reason to believe the body is anyone else.The call about the remains came into police shortly after 7 p.m. on May 4. They searched the area and secured the scene. Investigators returned at daylight to continue processing the scene in a muddy, overgrown area. The medical examiner arrived at the scene around 9:30 a.m. and worked with investigators to prepare the body to be moved to the West Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office in Charleston.
