Department of Public Safety Commissioner Anthony Macaranas talks to reporters Tuesday afternoon.
A GROUP of hikers found human skeletal remains while exploring a cave at Banzai Cliff in Marpi on Sunday, July 7, the Department of Public Safety said.
In an interview Tuesday afternoon, DPS Commissioner Anthony Macaranas said, “Sometime in the late afternoon of July 7, a hiker found human remains. It was mostly bones. A call to DPS was made, an officer responded, came by and confirmed that it was bones.”
Macaranas said DPS could not confirm whether the human remains were from the World War II era or the present time.
But on Monday, July 8, “a member of the [Historic] Preservation Office came by and determined that the bones found are not WWII bones. The bones discovered are less than 20 years old,” Macaranas said.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau and Crime Scene Investigators “are on the scene conducting [an] investigation to determine the origin and … what … crime … [may have] happened there,” Macaranas said.
“We are going to send those bones to a forensic anthropologist to determine the age and the gender of the bones. … Right now that’s the only information I can provide until such time I can get a response from the investigators as to what the findings of their investigation [are],” Macaranas said.
“It’s just one person,” he added, referring to the human remains. “Like I said, it’s not WWII human remains. It is … something in the present.”
Asked if the remains were found with other items, he said, “It was not clarified how the bones were found … but the bones were found intact as one single human remains.”
He said DPS will provide an update as soon as it has more information.
In an official statement on Tuesday, Assistant Chief of Police Simon Manacop, the DPS acting public information officer, said:
“Officers learned that a group of hikers were exploring inside a cave when they discovered human skeletal remains along with artifacts that appeared to be from World War II. Officers were also guided to another cave where additional human skeletal remains were discovered.
“The next day, July 8, 2024, personnel from the Historic Preservation Office did an examination of skeletal remains and determined that some of the [human] bones were less than 20 years old and that it was not [human] remains that dated back to the war.
“DPS is unable to determine at this time whether foul play is a factor.”
In other news
The DPS commissioner also provided a statement regarding the double homicide case that happened in January at an apartment on Hagamham Lane at the corner of Tun Joaquin Doi Road in Fina Sisu. The victims were Wang Jindong, 57, and his wife, Liu Shuping, 52.
Dr. Philip Dauterman of the Commonwealth Health Center, who performed the autopsies, indicated that the deaths of the couple were caused by blunt force trauma to the head.
Last March, DPS stated that it sent evidence for analysis to an off-island laboratory.
The DPS commissioner on Tuesday said, “We are still waiting for the results. I know the public is concerned and anxious for an answer. We are still waiting for the forensic analysis to be done. As I’ve said earlier, some of these investigations and forensic examinations will take time. It might take six months to a year or over a year depending on how the examination was done. When we receive the result, we will issue a statement.”
