By: Channel 9 Eyewitness News
news@kcautv.com
SAC CITY, Iowa (AP) _ The skeletal remains found buried in the basement of a Sac City home are those of a man last seen three years ago.
Sac City Police Chief John Thomsen says the state medical examiner's office used dental records to confirm the identity as Mark Koster. He was listed as a missing person in 2010. His family reported he was last seen in May 2009. Koster who was 58, was the prior owner of the home and had been living with an unknown man about three months before he disappeared. Police are investigating the death.
No one had lived in the house after Koster disappeared and family members sold the house in May. The new homeowner was remodeling the basement and found the buried remains.
By: Diana Johnsen
djohnsen@kcautv.com
Brad Orcutt's father-in law, Lesly Gehlsen of Carroll was renovating the house at 610 N. 5th Street on Monday in Sac City, when he made a shocking discovery and gave Brad a call.
"He had found something when he was working on the house and said that the police might be hanging around and that there's something pending an investigation," remembered Orcutt.
Orcutt said Gehlsen had found skeletal remains.
Gehlsen contacted the Sac City Police who believed the remains were those of a human's.
"The body was taken to a funeral home here and was taken to Ames to the Iowa State Medical Examiner's Office," said Sac City Chief of Police, John Thomsen.
The last person living in the house was Mark E. Koster.
Koster went missing on July 4, 2009 and was legally declared dead in 2011.
Police say the body could be Foster's, but are told by neighbors that Foster kept to himself and nobody knew much about him, which makes the investigation that much harder.
"It's very difficult. The neighbors had nothing to do with him. He has no friends that we're aware of," added Thomsen.
Police and neighbors said Foster did have a man living with him a few months before he went missing.
Police said they know little about the other man and if he is linked to Foster's disappearance.
They hope to get results from the Iowa State Medical Examiner's Office either Thursday or Friday, telling them the cause of death and who the remains are.
Skeletal Remains Identified as Mark Koster
