Authorities in western Washington have recovered a near full skeletal body, thanks to a tip from a pet dog.
Bill Flowers' dog Liberty showed up at his house last week with a human leg.
Flowers said he first thought about calling the police. But he buried the human body part in the back yard of his home on the Nisqually Indian Reservation in western Washington to avoid police inquiries.
"I'm 93 years old. "I didn't want to have to go to the pen for something I didn't do," Flowers told CNN affiliate KOMO- TV.
On Saturday -- four days after the discovery -- his daughter arrived. When he told her what happened, she said, "Dad, we have to call the police."
On Sunday, the Thurston County sheriff's office put a tracking collar on Liberty and deployed five other search dogs along with 30 volunteers, Acting Lt. Ray Brady said.
Liberty did not lead them to anything helpful. But the trained dogs found a skull, pelvis and a rib cage in nearby woods.
Authorities did not know whether the remains belonged to a man or woman.
Brady said the remains appeared to have been scattered by a wild animal. Flowers said the leg he buried -- which deputies dug up -- appeared undamaged from the knee down.
Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock told KOMO-TV a pathologist will examine the remains.
