Second skull found behind former Shermantine home

*BREAKING NEWS* 

A second partial skull and additional human remains were found Friday behind the former part-time San Andreas home of convicted serial killer Wesley Shermantine, authorities said.

Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office cadaver dogs pinpointed the remains and a backhoe from the Calaveras County Public Works Department helped excavate the site, uncovering the remains at 11 a.m., said San Joaquin County Sheriff's office spokesman Deputy Les Garcia.

The skull, along with another uncovered Thursday about a quarter-mile away on an adjacent property, has been turned over to the California Department of Justice for DNA analysis and positive identification.

Garcia said it has not been determined if either skull belongs to an adult or a child, male or female.
Jill Spriggs, chief of the California Department of Justice Bureau of Forensic Sciences, said a positive identification of a skull will take from one week up to a month.

"It will depend on how degraded the sample is," Spriggs said.

She said the agency is not experiencing any kind of backlog that will cause delays.

It takes at least a week because "that's just the nature of the test," Spriggs said.

Garcia said three searches are under way simulteaneously, the two off Leonard Road in San Andreas and a third on Flood Road in Linden. Investigators are excavating a well at the Linden site, he said, "where we believe more bodies may have been disposed."