Grim discovery in Aussie bushland: 'Not appropriate to speculate'
Police say it will take some time to identify who the remains belong to.
Human remains have been found in dense bushland near an area where a missing 26-year-old man was thought to have disappeared in Western Australia.
Police say a member of the public alerted local officers to the discovery near Nannup, about 265km south of Perth, at the start of the week. Detectives and forensic officers attended the scene on Tuesday working to identifying the deceased person, which they say could take some time.
The remains were found in an area where Corey O'Connell, 26, was last sighted in June nearly two years ago, with the discovery linked to an organised search mission led by his sister Haylee, the ABC reports.
Although authorities say it would be inappropriate to speculate whether the remains belong to Mr O'Connell, they did indicate the finding was linked to the search for him.
"At this time it is not appropriate to speculate whose the remains may be," Inspector Geoff DeSanges told reporters.
"However, the remains were located close to a search area for a man who has been missing since 2021."
The search for Corey O'Connell
Corey was last spotted walking along the Brockman Highway on the morning of 24th of June 2021, leaving his car and walking on foot before he vanished. His family have led countless search missions through the bushland with huge community involvement, with another search scheduled for the upcoming weekend.
In a recent heartfelt message, Haylee shared why the family continue to tirelessly search for their relative.
"We have lots of photos and love to look at them but we look at the ones when Corey wasn’t born [yet] and we all agree that it just doesn’t feel or look right, much like life right now," she wrote.
"We miss Corey everyday and were going to try everything within our power to find him. Corey is not just a missing person – he is our son and little brother."
No suspicious evidence was found and police investigations are set to continue.
with AAP
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