TOPAZ MOUNTAIN, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Police say human remains were found in the desert by cadaver dogs during the search for Susan Cox Powell on Wednesday.
"We have found human remains," said Lt. Bill Merritt of the West Valley police department.
But Lt. Merritt could not confirm if the remains belonged to Susan Cox Powell.
"At this point we don't want to jump to any conclusion," he said. "This is an area where human bones have been found before. But we are certain these are human remains."
Police could not confirm how long the remains were there, nor the gender of the body.
Susan Cox Powell has been missing since December of 2009 from her WVC home.
Police say the search area was near where Susan's husband Josh liked to go camping, and that the area wasn't far from where josh claimed to have been camping with his two young sons the night Susan dispppeared.
The specially-trained cadaver dogs are used to target a human scent and give signals when they do find something.
WVC Police Lt. Bill Merritt spoke to ABC 4 News and confirmed that several cadaver dogs have been used to confirm that the the remains were human.
"The way it works, several dogs will be brought in to confirm what they've found," he said. "Then they will be pulled away and allowed to return to confirm the scent and that's exactly what happened."
Merritt said a Juab County forensics team and a Utah state medical examiner have been dispatched to the scene. But he conceded they may not have answers right away.
"He (medical examiner) will be able to confirm that these are human bones, but that's about it," he said.
Police expect to remove the bones for the medical examiner who will then transport them to Salt Lake City to determine age and gender.
The new search comes on the heels of two other searches conducted by WVC police in the past month.
On August 19, WVC Police invited members of the media to accompany investigators on a search of abandoned mines near Ely, Nevada.
The next week, WVC investigators served a warrant at the home of Steve Powell, the father of Susan's husband Josh, who lives with his dad in Puyallup, Washington.
Police seized evidence from Steve and Josh, including journals belonging to the two men and Susan herself.
Steve Powell also claimed that he had a "sexually-charged" relationship with his daughter-in-law.
Susan was last seen on Sunday December 6, 2009 after attending church services with her two young sons.
Josh Powell claims that he took the two boys camping in Utah's West Desert later that night, even though the weather forecast called for a snowstorm and low temperatures were expected.
Less than a month later, Josh Powell sold the couple's WVC home and left Utah to live with his father in Puyallup.
He is the only "person of interest" named in the case.
The relationship between the Powell family and Susan's family has been contentious ever since the investigation began.
Susan's father Chuck Cox has been vocal in his criticism of Josh and Steve, claiming that they could be more helpful to investigators.
Stay tuned to ABC 4 News and ABC4.com for more on this story.
