SAN DIEGO COUNTY, California — Bones discovered Sunday by a volunteer searching for a missing Chula Vista mother appear to be animal bones, according to a Sheriff's sergeant on scene.
The volunteer reported finding the bones in the grass near Dehesa Rd and Sloane Canyon Road in Dehesa, a community east of El Cajon.
Sheriff’s deputies closed off Sloane Canyon Road off Dehesa Road while they investigated.
The volunteer posted in the FB group, Missing Maya Millete Discussion & Theories, that while searching the area around Dehesa, the man's pickup truck became stuck in the sand and he later found several bones in the grass off the road.
Photos of the remains posted on the Facebook page showed a section of a spinal cord, as well as another large, straight bone. The bones appeared to be sun bleached and white in color.
Sunday afternoon, Sheriff's homicide Sgt. Tim Chantler told News 8 that the bones appeared to be too large to be human. Sgt. Chantler also mentioned the location where bones were found may have been in an area where animals are buried, as other bones were spotted.
It has been seven weeks since Millete, 39, was last seen at her home in San Miguel Ranch in the 2400 block of Paseo Los Gatos.
Volunteers conducted three organized searches on Sunday.
“The more hands on deck the better, whoever wants to come,” said Ashley Rawlins, a local attorney who helped organize two searches in the North County listed on the Facebook group, Find May/Maya Millete.
One search began at 8 a.m. Sunday at the Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve.
The second search started at 1 p.m. at Lake Hodges near the parking lot on Lake Drive.
“We're just trying to cover as much ground as possible and really search for any clues or evidence or anything that might help us be able to bring her home and find some answers and seek justice,” said Rawlins.
A separate search began at 1 p.m. on Sunday at the Otay Valley Regional Park, which is closer to the home where Millete lived with her husband Larry and three children.
