A homeowner called police after his dog brought home two human leg bones.

A homeowner called police after his dog brought home two human leg bones.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HUBBARD -- Township police Detective Mike Begeot has a special interest in warming up a cold murder case.
"Nobody deserves to be left like that," Begeot said of the 1995 slaying of 25-year-old Shawn C. Hughes of Pittsburgh.
"Maybe somebody will get a conscience," Begeot said.
Even today, Begeot asks prisoners from the Hubbard and Sharon-Farrell, Pa., areas who he's transporting to and from jail if they know of Hughes and what happened to him. Nobody has said anything so far.
A portion of Hughes' skeletal remains was found May 27, 1996, off Fox North Road when a dog carried two leg bones home, and the homeowner called police. The skeleton was found three days later.
Fox North is one of the routes used by those who want to drive from Sharon and Farrell to Youngstown's East Side to avoid police, Begeot said.
The Trumbull County Coroner's office told him the bones lugged home by the dog were human, and an orthopedic physician said they had been outside for about a year. The time line turned out to be correct.
"I got lucky," the detective said of identifying the remains.
Identification
Fortunately, Hughes' wallet with no money in it was found with the bones. Hughes had been shot to death.
"Without the wallet, we would have never found out who he was," the detective said.
Begeot's investigation found that Hughes was last seen alive in Pittsburgh at his aunt's house, where he was staying in May 1995. The aunt and her son told Begeot that a car full of people, including one woman, picked up Hughes and drove off.
Hughes had a minor police record. His family told Begeot that it was not uncommon for Hughes to get upset about house rules and leave home.
But the young man would telephone his family during the next holiday or birthday from Georgia or Tennessee and they would know he was OK.
Begeot said Hughes had given his aunt the name of "Misty" and her Sharon telephone number if she needed to get in touch with him.
The information led Begeot to a Sharon woman, a mother of two who lived with her boyfriend.
Begeot said the woman told him he didn't know Hughes.
"She wasn't being truthful," Begeot said of the woman. And, he added, her boyfriend had nothing to say.
Begeot said he doesn't know if the Sharon woman was the woman in the car that picked up Hughes at his aunt's house in 1995.
"He was killed over a woman -- that's my belief," Begeot said, adding that it doesn't appear drugs were a motive.
Anyone with information about the slaying is asked to contact Begeot during weekdays at (330) 534-8477.
yovich@vindy.com