MIAMI — A shallow grave with human remains was found Friday in the same Florida nature preserve where a severed arm and part of a leg were located earlier this week, Martin County Sheriff’s Office said.
Law enforcement investigators are still searching for other body parts.
The arm and leg were found about a mile apart on the banks of a gator-infested canal in the the John C. and Mariana Jones/Hungryland Wildlife and Environmental Area on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
The more than 16,600-acre park, home of rugged terrain and gators, panthers and other wildlife, is in both Martin and Palm Beach counties and is about seven miles west of Jupiter.
On Friday, the sheriff’s office said the medical examiner’s office identified the remains found earlier in the week by using a fingerprint from the hand. The sheriff’s office identified the man as 43-year-old Dustin Davis Mills of St. Lucie County.
It was not clear if the remains found in the shallow grave Friday were related to those being analyzed by the medical examiner’s office. Martin County Sheriff William Snyder says they “have every reason to believe, based on a tattoo, that it is the same person.”
Deputies said Friday that detectives believe Mills was killed.
“The body parts did show evidence of being removed with a sharp instrument,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.
Snyder says it is still unknown whether the body was thrown into the reserve by a person or an animal in the area had gotten to it, such as a Florida panther, wild hog, bobcat, coyote, bird or rat.
On Wednesday, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist was in the preserve and spotted what she believed was a human arm in an alligator’s mouth.
The discovery prompted the FWC to reach out to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.
Using helicopters, a dive team and cadaver dogs, investigators searched the thick brush for more remains.
In a Facebook post Friday, the sheriff’s office said the arm was found Wednesday “near a large alligator that was guarding the body part.”
On Thursday, part of a leg was found about a mile and a half away.
Not a lot is known about where Mills had been recently. Snyder said he did not have a permanent address, and he moved around a lot.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office said Mills was released from jail in February 2020, after serving about two years for battery on a law enforcement officer.
According to the sheriff’s office, Mills had been in prison for manufacturing, sale and delivery of marijuana, trafficking in illegal substances and resisting arrest with violence.
Deputies will remain at the preserve through the weekend.
“A picture will begin to emerge; we will figure it out,” Snyder said. “There is a lot to still uncover.”
Anyone with information about Mills or this crime is asked to call Martin County Sheriff’s Office at (772) 220-7060.
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(Miami Herald Reporter Devoun Cetoute contributed to this report.)
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