Body parts found at wildlife sanctuary identified
MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. – Martin County investigators say they have identified damaged body parts found at the beginning of the week at the Hungryland Wildlife Preserve.
However, the sheriff’s office said Friday that it continued to search the reserve after a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission official found what appeared to be a grave. farmers have human remains.
Detectives said the arm, hand and part of a leg were found Thursday near a canal infested with worms attributed to Dustin Davis Mills, 43, of St. Lucie.
The medical examiner was able to get fingerprints on the victim’s hand, which was located near a large crocodile guarding the body part.
A second body part lies on the bank of another canal about a mile from the first.
Detectives, the sheriff’s office diving team and FWC officers spent Thursday scouring hundreds of acres of the reserve looking for the remains of Mills’ body.
Detectives suspect that Mills was the victim of a murder.
The sheriff’s office said the body parts showed signs of being removed with a sharp instrument.
Mills served in prison for a variety of crimes, including production, sale, and transportation of marijuana, trafficking in illegal substances, resisting violent arrest, and resisting law enforcement or lifeguards fire.
He was removed from the Department of Corrections in February 2020 and has not had a permanent address since his release.
The public is encouraged to call the Martin County Sheriff’s Office at 220-7060 if you have any information about Mills or his death.
It is unclear whether the shallow grave is related to Mills or is from another body.