HENRIETTA – New information is available about human remains discovered in rural Ray County.

“We had a mushroom hunter go out into a rural part of the county” and came upon skeletal remains April 27, Sheriff Scott Childers said Monday.

No location for the discovery is being released, Childers said.

“I don’t want people going out that way looking themselves,” he said.

Childers revealed a few new details but expressed reluctance overall to provide more due to calls from people – in pain and seeking closure over the loss of a loved one – who want to know whether the remains might belong to the person they lost.

Preliminary information from an anthropologist suggests the remains are female, under age 30 and missing for less than three years. Releasing those limited details might help people looking for missing men to look elsewhere, he said, but Childers emphasized the preliminary review may prove “completely wrong” after a thorough laboratory analysis. Lab results expected to take about seven more weeks, he said.

“I don’t want somebody to get their hopes up,” Childers said, later adding, “This could be somebody from another state that nobody has any idea about. … I just can’t imagine losing a child and I don’t want to add to that anguish.”

In another case of remains found in a nearby rural area, the body of Alesha Jane Reade, 45, Independence, turned up in neighboring Clay County, not far from the Ray County line, near Cameron and Easley roads. The site is about about a mile north of Missouri City. A reward of $7,000 remains available in that case.

Childers declined to say whether foul play is suspected in the latest discovery.

The initial, all-night site search involving pole lights and law enforcers included Childers calling in an outside crime scene investigation unit.

“I contacted the Kansas City Police Department CSI team; had them come down so they could work the crime scene themselves, because they’re experts at that,” Childers said.

Another call went to Frontier Forensics, Kansas City, Kansas, which works with Washburn University Anthropology Recovery Team to analyze the bones “to get a DNA profile.”

“We’re hoping with that DNA profile that it will come back with somebody known missing that we have DNA for,” Childers said.

At this time of year, many people hunt for morel mushrooms in rural Ray and Clay counties. The mushroom can sell for $40 to $50 per pound.