Adult Male Remains Discovered on Beach

Massachusetts officials are investigating after human remains were found Saturday on Plum Island Beach in Newbury.

Officials say a man walking his dog on the beach came across a human leg bone with a sock on the foot. His call to police sparked a two-day search.

The chief medical examiner later determined that the remains belonged to an adult male. No further information about that person's identity has been released.

Newbury residents have their own theories of what happened on Plum Island Beach this weekend.

"You lose people out here," said Ronald Barrett. "Fishermen go overboard and what not and they don't find them for years."

Barrett suspects that the human remains found by a man and his dog on Saturday are those of a person who disappeared in the vicious waters off the coast.

"A big storm like this turns up the ocean underneath and they could come up on the beach," Barrett said.

Newbury Police and State Police shut down a three-mile stretch of Plum Island Beach on Sunday. Their extensive search turned up more remains.

"We didn't know what was going on," said Newbury resident Kevin Sheehan.

Sheehan was confused when police asked him to take his dog off of the beach on Sunday. He was surprised to find out why.

"Human remains - gee whiz, we wouldn't have expected that," Sheehan said.

Carrie Kimball Monahan with the Essex County District Attorney's Office says she is hopeful that the medical examiner's office will be able to identify the remains, which could mean long-awaited answers for family and friends of a missing person.

"That's the first thing I thought of was closure to someone that lost someone," Barrett said.

It is expected to take several days to process and identify the remains.