Re: [Az-Geocaching] Geocaching Makes the News

I've read some strange encounters and adventures in the forums from cachers, but this one has to rank up there as one of the eeriest. A find like this was bound to happen - and as much venturing about as geocachers do, I'm sure, there will be other odd discoveries yet to come.

Rand
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Heitowit
Sent: Sunday, February 29, 2004 9:59 AM
To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
Subject: Re: [Az-Geocaching] Geocaching Makes the News

Check out this link.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=72844738-37da-419d-9281-ecef2643e236

Team Tierra Buena wrote:

>USC-Aiken students discover body
>Web posted Saturday, February 28, 2004 at 10:59 p.m.
>By Peter G. Gilchrist | South Carolina Bureau
>AIKEN - Two USC-Aiken students walked into Hitchcock Woods early
>Saturday morning on a high-tech treasure hunt and stumbled into a real
>mystery.
>Tim Meesseman and Carl Williams, both 20, were using a global
>positioning system to find hidden items in an adventure game known as
>geocaching.
>Instead they found the remains of a skeleton.
>"At first I saw a skull and then I looked and saw a few decomposing
>bones next to it," Mr. Meesseman said. "We couldn't believe it."
>The two were searching near Dribble Road, using the GPS to find the
>longitude and latitude of the hidden cache. The coordinates are found on
>a Web site, www.geocaching.com, and 28 caches are hidden in the
>Aiken-Augusta area.
>
>"After I saw the bones, we saw a pair of Nike tennis shoes about five
>feet from the skull," Mr. Meesseman said. "It looked like they were from
>the 1980's or something. It had definitely been there a while."
>Lt. Michael Frank, spokesman for the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, said
>it is unclear how long the remains had been in the woods, but said an
>autopsy and a forensic reconstruction will be done to try to identity
>the person.
>"Right now we don't know much. There wasn't enough information at the
>scene to determine if foul play was involved," he said. "It could be
>weeks before we know more."
>Patrick King, of Aiken, a regular on the geocache circuit, said he'd
>heard of unusual finds during hunts, but nothing like this.
>"I've heard of people finding strange things like underwear, but I don't
>think I've ever heard of anyone finding a body."
>--From the Saturday, February 28, 2004 online edition of the Augusta
>(GA) Chronicle