Body found may be missing Marine Eric Hall

Body may solve missing veteran mystery
Officials awaiting coroner's report STAFF PHOTO / JASON McKIBBEN
A volunteer searching for missing Iraq war veteran Eric Hall Sunday found human remains in this drainage pipe in the Deep Creek area near Sulstone and Partin drives. The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office responded to the scene and removed the remains Sunday evening. The identity of the body has not yet been released. Hall has been missing since Feb. 3 when he left his aunt's home on a motorcycle which was later recovered near the site where the body was found.
By Kate Spinner

DEEP CREEK -- A badly decomposed body found Sunday in a culvert in Charlotte County is suspected to be that of missing Iraq war veteran Eric Hall.

"Everybody's kind of concluded that," said Bob Carpenter, spokesman for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.

However, he said, a final determination will not be made until the body is analyzed by the county medical examiner.

Hall's mother, Becky Hall, said she wanted to wait for the medical examiner's report before reaching any conclusions or making comments.

Becky Hall also would not say whether such items were found.

Carpenter said he did not know when the medical examiner would make a determination. He also could not say whether shoes, a cell phone, or clothing belonging to Hall were found in the culvert or nearby.

Suspicion is high that the body is Hall's because the culvert was very close to an underground shelter Hall is thought to have built weeks ago.

A volunteer who was searching for signs of Hall contacted the Sheriff's office Sunday morning to report a strong odor coming from the culvert, according to a Sheriff's Office press release.
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http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080310/NEWS/803100312

This has to be the one time I prayed someone would turn up with homeless veterans. Pray for his family.


The count's public works department provided a backhoe for investigators to dig to the pipe and cut a hole in it. The body was found 40 to 50 yards inside the pipe.