Skeletal remains of 14-year-old who may have witnessed murder discovered in Florida

Updated

Police say the skeletal remains of a Florida teenager who may have witnessed a murder were discovered on Saturday, nearly a year and a half after he was reported missing.

Jabez Spann was 14 years old when he disappeared on September 4, 2017, just one week after the August 2017 shooting death of Travis Combs, according to the Sarasota Police Department.

Spann was last seen at a vigil for the victim, and a woman who witnessed Combs' murder told police she also saw him at the scene of the crime, ABC News reports.

Human remains were found by a worker in a rural part of Manatee County, Fla., on Saturday afternoon, and dental records were used to confirm they belonged to Spann. His cause of death has not yet been released.

Sarasota Police Department Deputy Chief Patrick Robinson said investigators will not speculate on whether Spann's death is connected to Combs' murder, but rather they will handle the new discovery "on its merits alone."

"We'll be going back and basically starting from the beginning, scouring our case files to ensure every lead, every tip was followed up on, everything was handled a hundred percent," Robinson told reporters. "We are going to run this thing to the end."

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