Sheriff Javier Salazar says investigators are 'cautiously optimistic' that badly burned human remains found in a wooded area off Highway 211 in rural northwest Bexar County is the body of Andreen McDonald, the 29 year old businesswoman who has been missing for three weeks, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
In a news briefing on the site, Salazar said if you wanted to dispose of a body that you wanted to stay hidden, this would be the place.
"It's a wooded area, a lot of cedar trees, oak trees, but very close to where the body was found there is a break in the foliage that could be a walking path, a driving path."
Salazar said the teeth found in the body are being compared with Andreen's dental records and crews are also trying to determine the gender of the person in hopes of getting closer to an identity.
"We're cautiously optimistic that (Andreen) is a possibility, but we can't rule out that it might be somebody else altogether," he said
Several days after Andreen was reported missing from the couple's home in an upscale north side neighborhood, her husband Andre McDonald, who is a major in the U.S. Air Force, was taken into custody after he had purchased a weapon, but appeared to be 'absent minded' at the gun shop.
Investigators say later several items that they say could have been used to destroy a body were found in the couple's home, along with blood, and the husband was arrested on charges of tampering with evidence, for destroying the receipt he received from the items.
McDonald bonded out of jail on Tuesday, after his $1 million bail was cut to $300,000.