Independence, MO —
The skeletal remains of a foot and a hand found along Little Blue River this summer belong to a man who went missing earlier this year.
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Sharp said Monday that the remains were that of Christopher Porter, 28, of Independence, who was reported missing in February.
Sharp did not comment on whether foul play was involved, saying that it was still a missing person case under investigation by the Independence Police Department.
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Independence police spokesperson Tom Gentry said the case remain under investigation and the remains were still being reviewed by the medical examiner.
“It is still open,” Gentry said. “At this point, we have not determined if there was foul play involved. Until we get more from the investigation or the medical examiner, we can’t say what it is yet. It may sound strange, but because we only have a hand or a foot at this point, we can’t say positively that he is deceased at this point.”
Ronda Montgomery, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, agreed, saying that the remains were too badly decomposed to determine a cause of death on them alone.
Porter was last seen near Centerpoint Medical Center on Feb. 1. Police said that Porter had diminished mental capabilities because of a brain injury.
On March 6 of this year, police searched the property east of Centerpoint for Porter but did not find anything after about an hour of searching.
On June 25, a pair of kayakers on the Little Blue River discovered skeletal remains of a human hand. Ten days later on July 5, a fisherman found a shoe with the remains of a human foot inside.
The Sheriff’s Office sent the remains of the hand to the University of Texas to be examined because the county lacked the equipment to run DNA comparisons. The foot remains were sent to a Kansas City crime lab.
Montgomery said that numerous agencies assisted in the investigation.
