A human skeleton found in Effingham County last weekend has been identified as belonging to a Savannah car salesman who was murdered in June 2011.
A man searching for firewood found the remains of Christopher Allen Mooney along Rahn Station Road late Saturday. The medical examiner’s office used dental records and help from the Savannah Metropolitan Police Department to identify the skeleton, Effingham Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Don White said Thursday.
Anthony Patrick Ingram pleaded guilty in December 2013 to voluntary manslaughter, theft by taking and financial transaction fraud in Mooney’s death.
He was sentenced to 20 years with 15 to serve and the remainder on probation.
Mooney, 52, was presumed dead after his blood was found on his bed and on sheets, pillows and blankets discovered in the trash outside his apartment.
Ingram never told authorities where the body was, White said.
The remains have been sent to a forensic anthropologist in Texas to determine more about the death. Those results will affect whether charges against Ingram will be filed in Effingham, White said.
The skeletal remains were found lying on the ground at the bottom of a dried-up creek bed. “It doesn’t look like he tried to bury it,” he said.
Family members reported Mooney missing to Savannah-Chatham police on June 6, 2011. In June 2012, Ingram, who was in jail on unrelated financial transaction fraud charges, was linked to several items missing from the victim’s residence.
Investigators found DNA matching both the victim and the suspect on a bent hammer handle that was considered a possible weapon.
Police linked Ingram to Mooney’s missing Pontiac Solstice car, Apple computer, a camera, high-end wristwatch and credit cards.