JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office are investigating after a man came across skeletal remains in a rural area of Northwest Jacksonville on Thursday evening.
The remains were found around 6:10 p.m. in a wooded area off Utsey Road. According to the Sheriff's Office, a man was working outside a home when he came across the remains and called the police.
Homicide detectives responded to the scene and they believe the remains are human, the Sheriff's Office said.
Joseph Cummings, the man who found the remains, said he was clearing land with a brush hog when he made the grisly discovery.
"I hit a plastic bag, so I backed up a little bit to get the plastic bag from my mower and glanced over and happened to notice there was a skull laying there," Cummings said. "I just shut everything down. Shut my tractor down. Walked away from it."
The medical examiner is testing the remains to determine the identity. It's unclear how long the remains were there.
Police officers planned on being at the scene throughout the night.