Skeleton Believed to Be of a Woman

The Ventura County medical examiner’s office said Sunday that a human skeleton discovered in the Grimes Canyon area appears to be the remains of a middle-aged woman with reddish-brown hair who died several months ago.

Deputy coroner Armando Chavez said the Sheriff’s Department had yet to identify the remains found Friday by a surveyor working on Grimes Canyon Road between Fillmore and Moorpark.

But an autopsy provided several clues. Chavez said the remains indicated the woman was 5-feet-3 to 5-feet-6, slender and probably white.

She was found wearing blue jeans, underpants, a T-shirt of undetermined color and black knee-high nylons with diamond patterns. There was no obvious trauma to the bones, but officials had not determined a cause of death.

A forensic dentist had begun an examination Sunday afternoon and was expected to continue working through the evening.

“The investigation is obviously still pending,” Chavez said. “We’re going to contact all the local law enforcement agencies and see if they have somebody who might be missing in that area, or somebody to kind of match up with what we have.”