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WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) -- Eight men whose skeletal remains were discovered last year in Fort Myers were the victims of homicide, police said Friday.
Eight sets of human remains were found in these woods last March.
Authorities would not say how the victims died, citing the ongoing investigation. Fort Myers police Detective Sgt. Jennifer Soto stopped short of calling the murders the work of a serial killer.
"We base our investigations on facts and evidence and at this point, we can't come to that absolute conclusion," she said, speaking by telephone from Fort Myers.
Investigators had previously been weighing a number of theories, including whether the remains could have been dumped by a crooked mortician. So far, only two of the eight men have been identified.
A surveyor found the first skeleton in March in a wooded area just outside downtown. Police soon discovered seven others nearby. No flesh remained on the bones, which appeared to have been chewed on by animals. There were no clothes or personal items, either, and police have been struggling to identify them.
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Authorities delivered the skulls last year to a forensic sculptor in Wyoming who recreated the faces of the victims. Police displayed the facial sculptures on Friday in hopes that someone will recognize them.
"We're hoping this will be used as a tool to hopefully spark a memory of a friend or loved one," Soto said. "We're just trying to retrace the last steps of these peoples' lives."
Two victims, Erik D. Cohler, 21, of Port Charlotte, and John C. Blevins, 38, of Fort Myers, were identified by comparing DNA from the bones to DNA from their relatives, Soto said.
Both lived transient lifestyles and disappeared in 1995, Soto said. Their family members contacted Fort Myers police after hearing of the case through news reports.
Authorities know precious little about the remaining men, other than they were white and between the ages of 18 and 49. They are believed to have died between 1980 and 2000.
Up to 50 other families from across the country have submitted DNA for testing, but none of the other victims have yet been identified.
Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that the skeletons are victims of Daniel Conahan, who was sentenced to death in 1999 for the strangulation of a drifter was found in some woods in neighboring Charlotte County. He remains on death row and denies involvement in any killings.
Conahan is also suspected in at least five other slayings of young men dubbed the Hog Trail Murders because of the swampy, wooded locations where the nude bodies were found in the mid-1990s. Those cases remain unsolved.
"We certainly can't exclude him at this point," Soto said. "We're very well aware of the similarities in this case. It's one avenue that we are actively pursuing
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