Remains found on North Side identified

February 14, 2018 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Police on Tuesday identified a set of partial remains found last month on the North Side as a missing South Osborn Avenue woman.

A news release from the police department says the remains are Jaclyn Bluhm, 28, who was reported missing by her family May 24.

Police began investigating when someone found a skull Jan. 26 in a heavily wooded area of Saranac and Kensington avenues. Police returned a few days later and found more remains, but would not comment further.

The Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office assisted the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office in the identification. A cause of death has not been determined.

Chief of Detectives Capt. Brad Blackburn said he did not want to comment on how Bluhm was identified other than that her identity was made by a medical examiner.

A person told police he was looking for scrap when he came upon the skull, which was in a deep ravine on the street.

Reports said Bluhm’s father reported her missing May 24. She was last seen by her boyfriend's grandmother on May 19, and the last contact anyone had with her was a text message May 20 she sent to her mother.

At the time, police and her family were worried about Bluhm because she was an insulin-dependent diabetic, and a check of hospitals and jails was also made, reports said. Reports said family members told police Bluhm had a heroin addiction but had never been out of contact with her family for a long period of time.

Police were called about 12:25 p.m. June 10 to a home in the 3400 block of Belden Avenue on the South Side where her car was found behind the home.

The person who called police told officers the car had been there for two days and the key fob was in the center cup holder. The person who called police said he used the fob to open the trunk to see if a body was inside, and when he found no body, he called police.

The car was towed and was to be fingerprinted, reports said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Sgt. Ron Barber, lead investigator on the case, at 330-742-8255.