A search of a Yavapai County man’s home last month led to the discovery of a skull and the arrest of a suspected murderer.

In early April, an employee at the Ash Fork Post Office called police that John McCabe, 67, had not received his mail in over a year. On April 25, lawmakers conducted welfare checks at a Juniper Woods trailer, according to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office.

While there, lawmakers found Terry Werfenberg, 76, living on McCabe’s property. Werfenberg told sheriffs that McCabe left home about two years ago, broke into his home, stole several firearms, and stayed there for a while, according to the sheriff’s office. .

McCabe is nowhere to be seen, and Werfenberg’s strange behavior prompts the sheriff to alert the sheriff’s detectives. The sheriff’s office said detectives were unable to determine if McCabe was alive and had lived elsewhere, so they searched the area for a possible body.

During this time, Werfenberg was arrested and charged with burglary and theft of a firearm, according to the sheriff’s office.

According to the sheriff’s office, several human bones were found with a search warrant after volunteers noticed what appeared to be skull fragments in a bonfire near the trailer during a search of the property, according to the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office said a second search two days later found McCabe’s medical ID bracelet and wallet, as well as more bone fragments, at the scene of the fire. It is unclear whether the body was definitively identified as McCabe’s.

Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Christine Green said the bodies found on the property had been burned.

Additional charges against Werfenberg, including murder, are pending, the sheriff’s office said.

This article originally appeared in the Republic of Arizona. Man arrested after bones found in Yavapai County home