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Seven months after he had gone missing, skeletal remains stumbled upon by a local man out for a walk have been identified as those of Granite Falls resident Eric Santiago Martinez Solorzano.
The 27-year-old was reported missing on April 2. Early that morning and the prior evening he had been at a restaurant/bar in Montevideo and, according to the Yellow Medicine County Sheriff’s Office, was last seen exiting a vehicle travelling on Highway 212 toward Granite Falls.
Solorzano subsequently contacted his sister for a ride at approximately 2 a.m. on April 2 via cell phone. They had reportedly made arrangements to meet along the highway, but she was unable to locate him.
Based on information obtained from Solorzano’s cell phone received prior to a loss of battery power, a three-mile area was mapped out and searched extensively by law enforcement officers and fire department volunteers. High flood waters and a fast moving current in the nearby Minnesota River limited the effectiveness of the effort, and the search came up empty.
According to the YMC Sheriff’s Department, dispatch was contacted at approximately 4:30 p.m. this past Saturday by Jim Aus, who reported he had found the remains of a body near his home in a wooded area in the vicinity of the intersection of Highway 212 and Yellow Medicine County Road 5.
Aus said he was walking about 50 yards from the Minnesota River when his attention was drawn to a pair of black tennis shoes that sat apart from one another.
“I was about 200 yards from the barn and I saw a black shoe laying on the ground. I thought, the flood must have washed it up. Then I saw the second one,” he said.
Upon closer inspection, Aus realized that a human skull and skeleton lay in between the shoes. The area in which the remains were found had only been out of the water for the past month.
The YMC Sheriff’s Office collected the remains with the assistance of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Afterward, the remains were delivered to the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office in Anoka where they were positively identified Tuesday as Solorzano’s using dental records.
The investigation remains open pending final autopsy results. According to YMC Sheriff Bill Flaten, authorities have no reason to suspect foul play.
Seven months after he had gone missing, skeletal remains stumbled upon by a local man out for a walk have been identified as those of Granite Falls resident Eric Santiago Martinez Solorzano.
The 27-year-old was reported missing on April 2. Early that morning and the prior evening he had been at a restaurant/bar in Montevideo and, according to the Yellow Medicine County Sheriff’s Office, was last seen exiting a vehicle travelling on Highway 212 toward Granite Falls.
Solorzano subsequently contacted his sister for a ride at approximately 2 a.m. on April 2 via cell phone. They had reportedly made arrangements to meet along the highway, but she was unable to locate him.
Based on information obtained from Solorzano’s cell phone received prior to a loss of battery power, a three-mile area was mapped out and searched extensively by law enforcement officers and fire department volunteers. High flood waters and a fast moving current in the nearby Minnesota River limited the effectiveness of the effort, and the search came up empty.
According to the YMC Sheriff’s Department, dispatch was contacted at approximately 4:30 p.m. this past Saturday by Jim Aus, who reported he had found the remains of a body near his home in a wooded area in the vicinity of the intersection of Highway 212 and Yellow Medicine County Road 5.
Aus said he was walking about 50 yards from the Minnesota River when his attention was drawn to a pair of black tennis shoes that sat apart from one another.
“I was about 200 yards from the barn and I saw a black shoe laying on the ground. I thought, the flood must have washed it up. Then I saw the second one,” he said.
Upon closer inspection, Aus realized that a human skull and skeleton lay in between the shoes. The area in which the remains were found had only been out of the water for the past month.
The YMC Sheriff’s Office collected the remains with the assistance of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Afterward, the remains were delivered to the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office in Anoka where they were positively identified Tuesday as Solorzano’s using dental records.
The investigation remains open pending final autopsy results. According to YMC Sheriff Bill Flaten, authorities have no reason to suspect foul play.
