DEARBORN COUNTY, Ind. — The skeletal remains of a missing Lawrenceburg man were found in a wooded area on Sunday, according to Indiana State Police Sgt. Stephen Wheeles.
Authorities determined the bones were that of Josh Batchelor, who was last seen leaving his grandfather's Front Street home on April 26, 2017.
Someone called police on Sunday and said they found bones while they were walking in a heavily wooded area in Lawrenceburg.
Linda Moehring, Batchelor's mother, said she had been holding onto the idea that her son would be found alive.
“This is not the outcome we hoped and prayed for, but we have known for a long time that it was a possibility ... I guess there is something in knowing for sure," Moehring said.
Moehring said in a 2018 news conference that she suspected foul play in her son's disappearance.
"We pray to God that Josh is fine and he is alive and he is somewhere, but we have suspicions of foul play," Moehring said at the news conference.
What kind of foul play? Neither she nor Wheeles, who addressed the crowd alongside her, provided details, but both pleaded for information on behalf of Batchelor's three children.
Investigators from Indiana State Police and University of Indianapolis forensic anthropologists found additional remains on Monday and Tuesday. Authorities used dental records to match the bones to Batchelor.
"Now our investigators have to take this investigation on a different route," said Wheeles. "Now we've got to start with what we had and what information we'd gathered up until this point, and use that to hopefully determine where he was from the time he was last seen to where he ended up when he was found this week."
The investigation into Batchelor’s death is ongoing.
