Two homeless people found a human skeleton in the woods Tuesday night.
The two were looking for a place to sleep in the woods near the 6000 block of West Newberry Road when they came across the skeleton, Alachua County Sheriff's Office spokesman Art Forgey said.
At about 8:40 p.m., the two ran to a nearby McDonald's and called 911 to report what they had found.
Forgey said they did not have any information about the skeleton, except that it belonged to a human. ASO called the medical examiner's office to inspect the remains, but the sex and race of the human was yet to be determined as of Tuesday night.
The skeleton was mostly intact, ASO Sgt. Todd Kelly said.
"I'm not sure if there are any missing parts or anything like that, but I believe it's fairly complete," Kelly said. "Anytime a body is out in the woods like that, there is a good chance of it getting disturbed a little bit."
Deputies are not sure of the cause of death. Forgey said the skeletal remains could be a homeless person who died of natural causes or a victim a of homicide.
Detectives will be working with the medical examiner to determine the person's identity and cause of death. The Sheriff's Office said it will go through missing persons cases to see if it finds any potential matches.
The medical examiner's office would not comment on the investigation.
Anyone who has information about this incident should contact the Alachua County Sheriff's Office at 352-955-1818.
Alligator staff writer Tyler Jett contributed to this report.
