Worcester County Sheriff's Office

Worcester County Sheriff’s Office

Press release

On Tuesday August 7th, at about 0930 Hrs. The Worcester County Sheriff’s office responded to homer Gudelsky Park in West Ocean City to investigate the possible recovery of a bone. Deputies responded and met with a couple who stated that they were wading out in the water and came across an object that appeared to be like a suitcase or box. They reached into the object and pulled out items such as; parts of a woman’s shoe, pottery, and what appeared to be a bone.

The Deputy believed the object to be a bone and called for the Worcester County Bureau of Investigation to respond. Detectives arrived and concurred that the object looked like a bone. The Medical examiner’s office sent an investigator to the scene and he believed it to be a bone. That object was collected and sent to the Medical Examiner’s Office to determine if the bone is human or an animal.

The object that contained the above mentioned Items was located buried in the sand about 20 feet off the low tide shoreline. The Maryland State Police and Maryland Natural Resources Police Dive teams were requested to respond due to the fact the object could not be easily removed from the sandy bottom.

The dive team is not centralized and Troopers and officers must come from all parts of the state to the scene of the incident along with their equipment. During their response time the tide changed and what was in 3-6 inches of water was now submerged in 5 feet of water. The Dive officers began a pattern search for the object. Visibility was less than a foot and the current was moving fast. Divers had to diligently search the bottom floor of the bay by hand to relocate the object. The sun had begun to set and the boats were returning from the White Marlin Open making search efforts difficult.

A decision was made to discontinue the search and resume it the following day at low tide.

On Wednesday 8-8-18 at about 1100 Hrs. WCBI Detectives and the MSP and NRP Dive teams responded back to the scene and waded out in the low water and located the object. After examination, it was determined that the object was a barrel made of wood and it was deteriorating quickly. As it was touched pieces were falling off . Divers methodically began digging around it in an attempt to remove it from the sand. Those attempts were unsuccessful due to the barrel falling apart.

A decision was made to dig out the inside of the barrel to identify its contents. After digging out the inside contents of the barrel, only sand, clams, and mussels were located. A scapula of a deer was found near the barrel.

The operation was closed down at that point. The suspected bone was sent to the Medical Examiner’s Office for identification.

We are waiting for the identification of the suspected bone and will advise when we have that information.

We would like to thank the Worcester County Bureau of Investigation, The Maryland State Police and the Maryland Natural Resource Police in providing their assistance in this investigation.

Update! 08/09/18  - The identification of the bone recovered from the waters off of Old Bridge Road has been determined to be an animal and not human remains.