Skull fire find

By KATH GANNAWAY

A SUSPICIOUS fire in the Big River State Forest last month has led to the discovery of a human skull.
The skull, which is being examined at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine to establish its identity, was found on Thursday in circumstances that Senior Detective Andrew Dunford from Alexandra Criminal Investigation Unit said could only be put down to chance.
The Department of Environment and Primary Industry bulldozed a containment line around the fire which was on the Morris Track off the Marysville-Woods Point Road.
Last week they called in a contractor to rehabilitate the area.
“The contractor was down there with his excavator on Thursday pushing all the vegetation back into position to rehabilitate and prevent further erosion when he found the skull,” Sen Det Dunford said.
“If that fire hadn’t occurred, DEPI wouldn’t have done the containment line, and we wouldn’t have found the skull.”
He said no other skeletal remains were found in the area on the day, and declined to speculate further on any possible identitification.
In response to the Mail’s question about a possible link to the disappearance of Melbourne man Warren Meyer on Dom Dom Saddle in 2008, he said it was not part of their investigation.
“There were several teeth still intact which appear to have had dental work, so we should be able to establish an identity,” he said.