By ERIC TICHY

etichy@post-journal.com

Portions of the Chautauqua Rails to Trails system were searched Monday as an investigation into the discovery of human remains entered its second week.

Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone said the searches — involving K-9 units with the Sheriff’s Office and New York State Police — were part of a “precautionary check of the trails.” Specifically, investigators were looking for potential evidence that might produce new leads after remains were found near a trail off Woleben Road in the town of Portland.

The bodies have not yet been identified. The remains are currently being analyzed by Mercyhurst University’s applied forensic services department in Erie, Pa.

The Rails to Trails system is comprised of a series of multi-purpose recreational trails on or near abandoned railroad rights of way for public use stretching from Sherman to Brocton.

On Sept. 26 a hiker searching for lost items came across what appeared to be a human skull. Another set of remains were found close by the following day and later confirmed to be human.

Quattrone said it’s likely the first set of remains, believed to be of a woman, had been there “much longer” than the second set of remains recovered. The discovery is being treated as suspicious by the Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators have been reviewing open missing person cases involving women, including Patricia Laemmerhirt, who was last seen in April 1976; Lori Ceci Bova, who was last seen in June 1997; and Corrie Anderson, who was last seen in October 2008.

Laemmerhirt resided with her husband and children on North Portage Street in Westfield — about 6 miles from Woleben Road in Portland. The New York State Police is the lead agency in the Laemmerhirt case.

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), Laemmerhirt was last seen at the age of 28 on April 3, 1976; she was reported missing by her husband.

Laemmerhirt would be 73 years old today.

Bova, meanwhile, was last seen in public the night of June 7, 1997, when she, her husband, her sister and her brother-in-law went to dinner at Red Lobster on Fairmount Avenue in Lakewood.

See TRAIL, Page A3

Trail

The first set of remains found in Portland may have been there for decades, Quattrone said previously. If that were the case, it would rule out Bova and Anderson.

“Every time when something like this happens it takes you right back to where it all started and all the emotions,” Jim Ceci, Bova’s father, said last week after the remains were found. “She’s one of the loves of my life and (I’m) never giving up.”

Anderson was last seen Oct. 28, 2008, leaving the former Lake County Dodge car dealership on Washington Street in Jamestown after visiting her boyfriend.

“I guess my biggest thing is closure — I would like to know that,” Anderson’s mother, Vicki Acquisto, said in a recent interview. “I’m to the point I just want there to be closure for all of us. I know whether she’s still here some place or not, she’s with the lord. I have a very strong faith and that’s helped me.”