# Eight skeletons found in Florida woods
Pastor Dale Morgan
Thu January 10, 2008
* Eight skeletons found in Florida woods*
* Story Highlights
* Authorities trying to determine if bones found were result of foul play
* 8 sets of remains were found in March; only 2 have been identified
* Police ponder whether serial killer is at work
* Authorities seek public's help in cracking the case; tip line is
877-667-1296
FORT MYERS, Florida (CNN) -- The woods off Arcadia Street in Fort Myers
for years concealed an unmarked graveyard, police say.
Eight sets of human remains were found in these woods last March.
An ecologist found the first set of human remains there in March 2007 by
chance. The man was surveying the area thick with melaleuca trees and
scrub brush when he saw what he thought was a human skeleton and called
police.
Arriving quickly at the scene, Fort Myers Police Sgt. Jennifer Soto
found that other officers had already discovered a second set of
remains. Then, there was a third set.
"At that point, things started to slow down," Soto told CNN last month
as she recalled the grim discoveries. "We wanted to make sure we were
dealing with a crime scene, which was exactly how we were treating it.
So we stopped and called in more resources and we started to expand. By
7 p.m. that evening, we had located the eighth set of remains."
In a single day, police had eight new deaths to investigate and few
clues other than a wooded area full of human bones. There were no
witnesses to interview and no suspects to track down.
It would be an investigation built almost entirely on forensics. Video
Watch an expert describe "reading the bones" »
Soto said police were determined to find every scrap of evidence. Crews
cleared the forest, cadaver dogs sniffed for more bones and for days
searchers sifted through buckets of excavated dirt looking for the
smallest fragment of human remains.
Mystery Bones Probe
• March 23, 2007: Police discover eight sets of human remains.
• June 8, 2007: Investigators release descriptions of each of the eight
remains. The dead were determined to be between the ages of 18 and 49
years old.
• Summer 2007: More than 50 people submit DNA samples to see if their
missing relatives are among the eight set of human remains.
• November 20, 2007: Police identify two of the eight sets of human
remains as Erik Kohler and John Blevins. Both men disappeared in 1995,
police said.
As a result of the effort, police said, eight "remarkably complete" sets
of human skeletons were found.
Medical examiner Rebecca Hamilton hoped the success in finding so many
complete skeletons would help determine the causes of death for the
eight and whether foul play was involved.
"Bones can actually help us identify those persons as well as any type
of trauma, such as stab wounds. Any kind of sharp instrument that leaves
tool marks on bones can be interpreted as pre-mortem trauma," she said.
She spoke to CNN at her office in June as each bone was being X-rayed
and catalogued.
Forensic anthropologist Heather Walsh-Haney was asked by police to
examine the bones for potential clues. She calls it "reading the bones."
"There are 206 bones in your body," Walsh-Haney said. "And as you live,
those bones change. That speaks, hopefully, to your identification. By
reading the bones, I am trying to tell who that person was in life and
how they died -- what happened at or around the time of death."
Botanists also assisted by studying the plant and insect life in the
area for clues as to how long the bodies had been in the woods off
Arcadia Street.
The scientists were able to determine that the eight were men and were
either Caucasian or Hispanic. They were between the ages of 18 to 49
years old when they died. Their bodies were left in the woods between
the 1980s and 2000.
But there was no evidence on the bones explaining how the men died: Was
it the work of a serial killer? Were the bodies dumped by an
unscrupulous funeral home?
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While rumors and speculation swirled in Fort Myers, several people
looking for missing relatives submitted DNA to find out if their loved
ones were among the eight. The DNA samples -- swabs taken from the
inside of the cheek -- were analyzed at the University of North Texas in
Fort Worth and compared to DNA extracted from the bones.
In late November, the DNA testing gave investigators a major break: the
names of two of the eight dead, Erik Kohler and John Blevins.
"It was the day we were waiting for all along in this investigation,"
Soto said, "because it gave us direction. It told us who they were. From
there, we were able to start tracing back the footsteps of their lives,
those last dates where we know where they were, who they hung out with."
Tracing Kohler and Blevins' footsteps won't be easy, Soto acknowledges.
She says both men led transient lifestyles and had criminal records.
Kohler worked odd jobs while moving between relatives' homes in
southwest Florida. His criminal record shows convictions for forgery,
disorderly conduct and trespassing. He disappeared in 1995 after leaving
his grandparents' home in Port Charlotte, Florida, according to a
missing persons report that Kohler's aunt filed four years later.
Blevins disappeared the same year as Kohler, police say. A 1988 arrest
report lists Blevins' occupation as a salesman and his address as the
Blue Lantern Motel in Fort Myers. His criminal record includes arrests
for loitering, possession of drug paraphernalia and solicitation for
prostitution. Blevins was never reported missing.
Soto said the circumstances of Kohler and Blevins' disappearances and
deaths indicate that they were probably killed in the woods or died
somewhere else and their bodies later dumped.
But until a cause of death has been determined, she said, it is
impossible to know if a serial killer has been at work in Fort Myers.
Soto hopes that more people who had a relative go missing in Florida
will provide the police with DNA samples. Identifying the remaining six
bodies will put investigators that much closer to solving the case.
Caroline Kohler gave the DNA sample that matched with the bones of her
son and solved his disappearance 12 years after he went missing. But the
answers she has received provide little solace.
"Erik chose to live on the streets. He lived a troubled life and he
probably died a horrible death," she said. "I had always thought maybe
he was off somewhere and just didn't want to contact us. At least I
guess now I won't look at someone walking on the side of the road and
wonder if that's my son."
Authorities urge anyone with information on the case to call 877-667-1296.