Human remains identified
Human remains discovered on the side of a road in east Neshoba County in April have been identified, according to Neshoba County Sheriff Eric Clark.
The remains have been identified as Zachary Burrage, according to Clark.
Neshoba and Kemper law enforcement authorities were searching for clues in the disappearance of Burrage, 48, of Noxapater, in March 2021
Clark in April said his office had received a call at about 7:45 a.m. from a woman on the side of Road 729 in the Shady Grove community near the intersection with Road 733 below the Mars Hill Cemetery reporting that she had found what she believed to be skeletal remains.
After deputies and investigators arrived on the scene, they verified that what the woman found was, in fact, a piece of human bone.
On Friday, Clark said they received laboratory results from Scales Biological Laboratory that confirmed the identity of the human remains to be Burrage based on a DNA sample his daughter had submitted.
On May 18, 2023, Scales Biological Laboratory matched a DNA profile from a sample that was submitted from Zachary Burrage’s daughter, Clark said.
The femur was a 99.998% match to the submitted swabs of DNA. The results listed Zachary Burrage as the biological father to the DNA sample.
On June 30, Scales Biological Laboratory matched the DNA profile from Zachary Burrage’s femur to the skull (petrous bone) that was recovered from Road 729, Clark said.
Zachary Burrage was last seen on January 31, 2021. His silver 2009 Honda Accord was found wrecked and abandoned in a ditch on Road 729, near the intersection of Road 733 at 7:30 p.m., Clark said on Friday.
Several searches were made at the time of his disappearance for Burrage that include K-9 searches with cadaver dogs, use of drones, and overland grid searches in the area.
Kemper County Sheriff’s Office, Mississippi Bureau of Investigations and Neshoba County Sheriff’s Office have worked together to help locate Burrage, Clark said.
If you have any information concerning this or any criminal activity in the Neshoba County- Philadelphia area, call 601-656-1414 or East Mississippi Crime Stoppers at 1-855-485-8477.