Homicide suspected in mysterious death of man whose bones found in NW. Wisconsin

A bullet hole in the skull has authorities suspecting homicide is behind the death of a man whose skeletal remains were found in December along a road in northwestern Wisconsin. There is still no word on the victim's identity or other details.

On Dec. 3, a dog brought home part of a human skull, and deputies soon located a full set of remains from a wooded area south of Barron on 10th Avenue.

Preliminary forensic information released Thursday by the Barron County Sheriff's Office revealed the man suffered a gunshot wound to the head.

Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said there was no gun at the scene and no shell casings, virtually eliminating the possibility that the wound was self-inflicted.

The body "was probably dumped by the side of the road," Fitzgerald said. "This did not happen there."

The Sheriff's Office received other new information about the man from the University of North Texas' laboratory for forensic anthropology and human identification that has yielded a general profile: white or Asian, age 35 to 55, and anywhere from 5 feet 2 inches to 6 feet tall.

"The next steps over the next couple of months will be to find and remove DNA and upload that information" to national databases for unidentified human remains and missing persons, Fitzgerald said in a statement.

Fitzgerald said that examiners reported that the man has been dead for at least a year, but the sheriff added that the state of decomposition of the bones leads him to believe the death does not go back decades.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482