The human skeletal
remains discovered near Porter Regional Hospital (PRH) in September have
been identified as those of a Portage woman, Porter County Coroner Chuck
Harris is reporting.
Dental records were
used to identify the remains as those of Tammy R. Brewer, 42, who had been a
patient at PRH before discharging herself from the hospital on July 3
“against medical advice,” Harris said in a statement released this morning.
“The manner of
death appears to be natural and there was no evidence of perimortem skeletal
trauma,” Harris added.
The remains were
discovered above ground early in the afternoon of Sept. 4 by an Enbridge
Pipeline crew conducting a routine inspection several hundred yards
northwest of PRH. They were subsequently recovered by a team led by
University of Indianapolis forensic anthropologist Dr. Krista Latham. Harris
said that IU’s Human Identification Center assisted in the identification of
Brewer.
The Porter County
Sheriff’s Police is also assisting in the investigation.