SAN ANTONIO — It's likely to be some time before authorities officially identify the person whose remains were found along a rural road in Bandera County Wednesday evening.
Officials say they are approaching the case as a homicide. But in the remote, usually peaceful setting, the idea of a murder has been unsettling.
About four miles south of the tiny town of Pipe Creek on FM 1283 near Red Bluff Ranch Road, neighbors say the hills and ravines are so isolated it's easy to believe a body could go undiscovered for a very long time.
In the only public radio transmission about Wednesday’s discovery of a burned body in a tarp, a dispatcher can be heard saying two passersby made the discovery while searching for lost property in the area.
A Broadcastify transmission reveals “people looking for a lost wallet believe they found a human body.”
Philip Stein said he lives nearby, and noticed the incident getting lots of traction on social media.
“People are wondering if we have a serial killer out here,” Stein said.
Locals say that, with growth and development moving in, an increase in crime isn’t surprising. But it is disturbing.
“It keeps getting closer and closer," Stein said. "And so it’s scary."
A Bandera County Sheriff's Office spokesman said the remains were so badly decomposed they couldn't immediately speculate on the identity of the victim, but they do have an open missing person’s case on a woman who was last seen a few miles away several months ago.
Jordan Tompkins, 25, disappeared on April 22.
A spokesman for the Tompkins family said they are aware of what happened Wednesday, but have no new information about their case. So far, all the local sheriff's office will say is that they are treating the discovery as a homicide case.
Bandera County doesn’t have a medical examiner, so they are awaiting autopsy results from a firm in Lockhart.
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