Duncan Gordon, 20, went missing on May 5, in South Carolina. On Wednesday, a coroner ruled that he died after falling into a plastic shredder.
Gordon was working at Industrial Recovery and Recycling in the city of Greer when he vanished.
The coroner said that little pieces of human remains were discovered close to the machine. DNA also matched that of his parents. The coroner had been contacted in June, a month following Gordon’s disappearance.
Police say that the machine had been in motion when Gordon was last observed. It had been looked at three times prior to the small parts of the remains being found.
The first time, Gordon’s father, Mike Gordon, had checked. He is a supervisor at the plant. The second time, a sheriff’s deputy and a K-9 team looked. The last time, the latter found the bloody remnants below the conveyor belt, detectives say.
“I can confirm the material is consistent with human fat, microscopically minute particles of skin and small pieces of bone,” the coroner said.
The incident is currently under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Because the coroner can’t give a death certificate without a body, the state will have to pursue other options to certify the death.
