Body of Woman Missing for Months Found Buried in Her Backyard: Police

Police have discovered the body of missing Julie Marie Catron, who was buried in the backyard of her Georgia home.

Columbus Police Department CPD) officers, located the remains of the 64-year-old in her backyard in Carriage Drive on Wednesday, June 29. Officers later confirmed that same day on social media that they had found a body at the property.

"In the course of a missing persons investigation, Columbus Police Department investigators have located what appears to be human remains on a property in the 2600 block of Carriage Drive," they said.

According to ABC9, Catron's remains were found in a shallow grave. She had been missing since November 2021.

In a Friday, June 10, missing person alert, the CPD and Catron's family had asked the public for help to try and locate her.

The police said of her moves: "She may have traveled from Columbus, Georgia, to Destin, Florida, or Crestview, Florida in November 2021."

The Muscogee County Coroner's Office said it would be sending off the remains for a positive identification.

"Even though we know it is her - She was in a tote and the condition of the body is in advance decomposition," it said. "We will probably have to obtain dental records."

According to Statista, there were 521,705 people who were filed as missing by the National Crime Information Center in 2020.

It added that the figure was the lowest in the U.S. since 1990 and represented a sharp decline from the 1997 peak of 980,712 people being filed as missing.

Newsweek has reported on numerous cases where human remains have been located across the U.S.

Earlier this month, a man was arrested after a dead body was found dumped in a bag outside a home in rural Georgia.

The Hancock County Sheriff's Office said it had received a 911 call about a "deceased person" who was in the yard outside a home on Main Street in Devereux.

Deputies later responded and confirmed that human remains had indeed been found on the property.

Christopher Collin Demmon, 33, who had previously lived at the home, was arrested on June 1 in connection with the death.

He has since been charged with malice murder, an offense where homicide is done with express or implied malice in Georgia.

Earlier this year, a skeleton linked to a man who was missing for 12 years was found by a drone in central Florida.

Palm Bay Police located the remains in a silver 2002 Ford Mustang in a retention pond in the Bayside Lakes neighborhood.

Palm Bay Police Lieutenant Jeff Spears said the car was associated with a missing person case involving 28-year-old Philippe Desir, a resident who had been missing since February 2009.

Update 7/1/22 at 11:41 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from the Muscogee County Coroner's Office.