Boyle County human remains still unidentified, Louisville family believes ID could come this week

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Family members of a missing Louisville woman say remains found in Boyle County several days ago could be identified sometime this week. 

According to a release from Kentucky State Police on Jan. 20, the KSP Post in Richmond was contacted about possible human remains discovered in Boyle County. The investigation indicated skeletal remains were found in a field off Craintown Road in Perryville. That's about 75 miles from downtown Louisville.

According to KSP, the Boyle County coroner removed the remains and they were taken to the State Medical Examiner's Office in Frankfort to be identified.

The remains have not yet been identified, however, Michael Knabel believes the remains could be those of his adult daughter, Andrea Knabel, who has been missing since Aug. 2019. 

"I have followed up on literally dozens of these type of situations where they find remains," Michael Knabel told WDRB News on Sunday. 

He said in most situations, the possibly that remains could be Andrea's are quickly ruled out, but this situation is different. 

"What is unusual about this one is that we couldn't rule it out right away," he said, citing factors like timeline, dental similarities, and the fact that the remains are female. 

"It was in the three to five year range which is how long my daughter's been gone. Three and a half years. These are exposed remains to the weather, they were not buried. They were female," said Michael Knabel. "There were specific dental similarities. I am not going to say the same because I didn't see it and at that point the detective hadn't seen what I had forwarded to them."

In the latest information from Michael Knabel on Monday, he said a forensic dentist is being used to help identify the remains, and an ID may be determined in two days.

While it is still undetermined who these remains belong to, Michael Knabel knows it's someone's loved one.  "It's a sad situation for whoever's remains," he said. 

In a recent Facebook post in the page called "Finding Andrea," Andrea's sister Erin said:

"We have been in contact with KSP who's on the scene. Remains were found on a farm and the woman seems to have been deceased for 3-5 yrs. The remains haven't been to the coroner yet to get exact details. The detective working Andrea's case was made aware too. We will check back with them when they have more info. Dental records of Andrea's are similar to these remains."