A family found the remains of their missing brother inside a treehouse on their father’s property after he died in a scuba diving accident earlier this month.
Henry Frantz Jr. died while scuba diving in Maui, Hawaii on March 10, WSB-TV reports. When his family went to settle his affairs at his Decatur, Georgia home on March 16, they found skeletal remains inside a treehouse on his property, local police told The Independent in a statement.
The family believed the bones belonged to their 28-year-old brother Hank Frantz, who they say went missing four years ago, WSB-TV reports. The remains are indeed Hank’s, the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed to The Independent on Thursday morning.
Despite the family stating that Hank went missing four years ago, Lt. John Bender with the Decatur Police Department told The Independent the office never received a missing person’s report.
Hank’s remains are anywhere from “months to years old,” Beoncia Loveless, director of operations for the medical examiner’s office, told The Independent.
Any further determinations about time or cause of death will be difficult, given the office only has skeletal remains to work with.
“With skeletal remains, determining cause and manner of death is sometimes difficult, if not impossible, because unless there is some obvious trauma to the skeleton, then we can't be definitive about other potential causes of death,” Loveless said.
The investigation is even more complicated because Hank didn’t live at his father’s house. Frantz Jr had an active lifestyle and was seldom visited by his surviving family as they lived in different states, his daughter told the Daily Mail.
“If someone is decomposing, but not yet a skeleton, then we might look for mail in the mailbox, or when was the last time the neighbor saw the person you know, or something like that, to try to narrow down that time frame,” Loveless said.
“But the longer someone has been deceased, the harder that is….And with this individual, since he was not a full time resident at the house, things like the mail and that kind of thing are not going to help us,” she added.
However, investigators did find hair on the remains, which they have sent off for testing, according to Loveless. No foul play is expected in either case, police said.
Henry was a prolific bagpiper and a founding member of the Atlanta Pipe Band, his close friend Leonard Wood told WSB-TV.
“Henry just saw them, heard them, liked them,” Wood said.
“He will be sadly missed by the piping community in Atlanta and other places,” he added.
The Atlanta Piping Band also mourned Henry in a post on Facebook.
“Henry’s passion for music extended beyond the pipe band—he was a fixture at the Atlanta Celtic Christmas, a talented uilleann piper, and even composed The Emory & Old St. Andrew’s March, played annually at Emory’s commencement,” the organization wrote.
“His dedication, kindness, and high standards inspired generations of pipers. Beyond music, Henry’s curiosity led him to travel the world, explore fossils, and pursue scuba diving. He will be deeply missed but never forgotten.”
The Independent has contacted the Decatur Police Department, the Maui Police Department and Wood for comment.
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