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Pasco officials: Search is off, no sign of a body in Green Key Park

 
Published Nov. 19, 2016

NEW PORT RICHEY — Investigators stopped looking for a body in Green Key Park on Saturday morning after their search didn't yield anything.

Cadaver dogs had indicated there may have been human remains in the park, but it appeared the dogs had picked up on some clothing, said Jason Hatcher, a major crimes sergeant in the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

"It doesn't look like anyone's buried out here," Hatcher said. "We did an exhaustive search."

The search began Friday afternoon, after the New Port Richey Police Department fielded a tip that there might be a body on the beach. The cadaver dogs that were brought in Friday morning picked up on a scent in a location northwest of the beach behind the tree line.

New Port Richey detectives called in forensic anthropologists from the University of South Florida, who spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning digging and sifting through soil.

Green Key Park, which juts into the Gulf Of Mexico and is connected to the mainland by a land bridge, was reopened to the public around noon Saturday.

Investigators did not elaborate on the nature of the tip or say if the tip was about a particular case. Hatcher indicated detectives might soon search other locations after interviewing the tipster again.