Family visiting from out-of-state discovers severely decomposed body along Lake Michigan in Somers

KENOSHA COUNTY -- A family visiting from out-of-state discovered human remains while walking along the shoreline of Lake Michigan in the Village of Somers in Kenosha County on Wednesday, December 28th. Authorities there said identifying the body will be extremely difficult.

Human remains found in Somers

There's a steep drop from the bluff near where the body was found on Sheridan Road near 11th Street -- that's why few people walk along that part of the lake.

The Hall family was doing just that around 3:00 p.m. Wednesday -- and on Thursday, investigators were looking for additional evidence.

"I saw a bone and it was an arm bone. Followed it up and I saw it was in a jacket," said Christian Hall.

The West Virginia family was in the area to visit relatives just over the border in Illinois, and went to explore. This wasn't the discovery they hoped to make.

Human remains found in Somers

"I didn't believe him at first. He just kind of turned around and went white and just went, 'I found a body. Go and tell dad,'" said Becca Hall.

"He was right. He found a body. It was a skeleton mostly -- but it had clothing articles still on the body," said Tim Hall.

"Coming up with who this person is will be our first step," said Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth.

Sheriff Beth said severe decomposition will make the identification a real challenge.

Human remains found in Somers

"See if they can get samples of people that were missing, whether it be hair, dental -- well we can't even do dental because that's part of the skeletal remains that are missing in this one -- so it's going to be a little more difficult to do that match," said Sheriff Beth.

Beth said it's too early to say how long the person's been dead or how they died.

The Hall family said it really hit them Wednesday night when they went back to their relatives' house to open presents.

Christian and Tim Hall

"It was then we were mindful of this other family when everything started to set in and started to talk about that and pray that this other family would have some answers," said Tim Hall.

Sheriff Beth said investigators are sizing up the body and comparing it to the descriptions of other missing people in the region. He said he welcomes any calls from people with a missing loved one since tips might be especially useful in this case.