FERNWOOD, Miss. (AP) — Investigators in southwest Mississippi may have found human remains in the search for a Maryland college student who disappeared in May 1995. The mother of that student has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Bremerton man.
An archaeologist said the remains appear to be charred bone fragments, possibly belonging to 19-year-old Donald Izzett Jr. A witness told investigators that the Cumberland, Maryland, teen was shot three times and his body burned at the isolated Fernwood property.
Izzett was on a cross-country trip after his freshman year in college, and his mother last heard from him when he called from California, crying and seeking money to return home.
No one has been arrested, but Izzett’s estate last month filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Shane Guenther, formerly of Fernwood and now of Bremerton, Washington. It alleges that Izzett died after a fight with Guenther.
Guenther’s lawyer, Cynthia H. Speetjens of Madison, Mississippi, has denied the claim in federal court.
Prosecutors have never filed criminal charges in the case, partly because no remains were ever found.
An attorney for Izzett’s mother said finding remains would confirm the story of the witness.