COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Police worked into the night Tuesday examining remains discovered in the same area where an Iraq war veteran disappeared 3 years ago.
Early Wednesday morning, Channel 2's Tom Regan confirmed that the remains belonged to a human.
A tip led Cobb County police to a Kennesaw neighborhood.
Channel 2's Carl Willis watched as investigators worked to determine if the remains found belong to Chase Massner.
"I've got a bad feeling," neighbor Amanda Gillette told Willis, after seeing a large number of police officers respond to the same home where Massner was seen leaving years ago.
"We did receive some sort of tip that led us to come back out here today and gave us some reason to start digging in the backyard. And once the detectives did the digging, that's when they located the remains," Alicia Chilton, with the Cobb County Police Department, said.
But police aren't sure if they have animal remains or the remains of Massner, a father and husband who was 26 when he disappeared in 2014.
Family members said he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had been treated for anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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But they said it was unlike him to not communicate with family.
Groups have organized and searched each year since. Then the tip that led police right back to Farmbrook Trail.
"This is unnerving, unsettling, crazy. I hope to get answers soon," Gillette told Willis.
"It's hard to think I stay at this house and there's all this crazy stuff going on," neighbor Amanda Moore said.
Police told Willis the remains have been taken to the medical examiner's office for testing.
They say a positive match would mean a heartbreaking end to this case but closure for a family seeking answers.
"I can only imagine how difficult is it to lose a loved one and not have any idea where they are and what happened to them," Chilton said. "The most important thing right now is that we want to identify what we collected."
Cox Media Group
