A 20-year-old South Carolina man reported missing in May was killed when he fell into a shredding machine, a coroner ruled Wednesday.
Duncan Alexander Burrell Gordon vanished in early May from his job at Industrial Recovery and Recycling in the state’s northern city of Greer.
Rusty Clevenger, Spartanburg County Coroner, stated that small fragments of a human body were discovered around the machine and that DNA testing confirmed Gordon’s parents. In June, the coroner’s office was summoned to investigate after Gordon vanished.
Authorities stated that the machine Gordon was operating at the time he disappeared had been checked three times before small fragments of his remains were discovered on a conveyor belt.
It was first checked by Gordon’s father, Mike Gordon, a supervisor at the plant, then by sheriff’s deputies and a K-9 team, and then a third time after bloody traces were discovered under the conveyor belt, investigators said.
“I can confirm the material is consistent with human fat, microscopically minute particles of skin and small pieces of bone,”In a statement, the coroner stated.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is currently investigating the incident, authorities said.
According to the coroner, a death certificate cannot be issued without a body. The recovered material was only two ounces in weight. He said that the state has other options to confirm a death.