Skeletal remains found in Panama City Beach

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - Panama City Beach Police are investigating after they say human remains were found early Tuesday morning. The remains were discovered in the woods by a transient west of the West End Bay County Fire Department.

Crime scene units and detectives could be seen off Back Beach Road. Officers told NewsChannel 7 they expect this to be a time-consuming investigation because of just how decomposed these remains are.

Beach Police Chief J.R. Talamantez said they got the call this morning. A bystander wandering through the woods on the west end, near Laguna Beach, came across human remains. NewsChannel 7 was told that the individual has been interviewed, but there are still a lot of questions to be answered.

Talamantez said the remains have been in the woods for quite some time. He’s now asking for the public’s help in identifying who this person was.

“But what I can say is that if anybody out there might know of somebody that might be missing or might have been looking for somebody or have not talked to somebody for a very long period of time. That’s the type of information we want to know. So please contact the Beach Police at 850-233-5000. Sheriff’s Office, Crimestoppers. If you might have any information at all about a person that is missing and you have not been able to contact, please let us know because that’s a big portion of the investigation,” Talamantez said.

That’s all the information given to us at this time.

Skeletal remains were found in Panama City Beach Tuesday morning.

Panama City Beach Police say the remains were found in the woods by a bystander west of the West End Bay County Fire Department.

City officials tell us this investigation will be a long process.

We have NewsChannel 7′s Katie Bente on the scene gathering more information.

Copyright 2023 WJHG. All rights reserved.