DiBattiste remains search focuses on skull

MUNCIE – The family of a once-missing Dunkirk woman hopes that a recent search of the area where most of her remains were found could lead to the discovery of her skull — and answers to how she died.

An Indianapolis search group’s cadaver dogs found traces of something in or around a pond at the Jay County Conversation Club during an April 11 search, giving the family of Brianna DiBattiste hope that might mean her skull is in the pond.

DiBattiste, 25, went missing last June 16. After several searches by law enforcement throughout East Central Indiana and into Ohio, a group of bow hunters found her partial remains on the club’s property on Sept. 1.

Missing from her remains were a hand, an arm and her skull. Authorities say it’s likely animals removed the missing portions of her body.

But family members, who organized the April 11 search with cadaver dogs, say they don’t believe DiBattiste’s skull was removed by animals.

And they believe the recovery of her skull might hold clues to how she died.

Jay County Coroner Jason White told The Star Press that the cause of DiBattiste’s death was undetermined because of the condition of her remains. White said his office believes DiBattiste died of a drug overdose. The young woman’s family has said she was a heroin user.

But family members who have spoken to The Star Press believe finding DiBattiste’s skull could show signs of gunshot wounds or other trauma that would indicate foul play. A Muncie felon who claimed to know DiBattiste led searchers on wild goose chases before the conservation club discovery on Sept. 1. He is awaiting trial on related charges.

The April 11 search has given the family new hope for answers.

“Obviously, we’re hopeful they find the skull,” Terri Beatrice, DiBattiste’s aunt, said Sunday. “If not, it’s out there. It’s somewhere else.”

Beatrice said 75 searchers and several dogs found nothing elsewhere on the conservation club property. All of the dogs “hit” on the same few feet on on the bank of the pond, she said.

White acknowledged that the skull is the portion of the woman’s remains that poses the largest remaining question.

“We’re still looking for the skull,” the coroner said. “That’s the remaining piece that we need.”

“They think something is in the pond,” White said, adding that he wondered if the dogs might not have picked up a scent from runoff from a nearby pioneer cemetery.

In the wake of the family’s search, White said he and Jay County Sheriff Dwane Ford were “coming up with a plan.”

That might include a search of the pond, White said, but such a search would need five days of dry weather so the pond’s water would have time to settle and clear. “With the rainy weather we’ve had, those ponds are just too cloudy,” he said.

White said that at the time some of DiBattiste’s remains were found on Sept. 1, a thorough search of the area was conducted. That search should have turned up anything that was likely to be found, he said.

“Nothing is definite but we’re still open to all the possibilities,” White added. “It’s certainly not going to hurt to put together a plan to try to search that area that the dogs indicated on.”

In the meantime, DiBattiste’s family clings to the hope that something will answer their questions and possibly lead to a break in the case.

“Our family still has no answers as to who left our loved one in the wooded area next to the pioneer cemetery,” DiBattiste’s grandmother posted on a Facebook page devoted to the young woman’s disappearance. “We wonder who was she with, what happened that caused her death. We are still praying that whoever has these answers will come forward with the truth.”

Contact Keith Roysdon at 765-213-5828 and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.