JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — Wearing black gloves, Sgt. Clay Platt opens a box full of bones that's been sitting in the Teton County Sheriff's Office evidence room for more than two decades.

One by one he places what's left of the human body onto a large sheet of brown paper.

"Every time a missing person report comes in we check to see if it's him," Platt said.

The man's entire skeleton, including his skull, fits neatly in three cardboard boxes and is usually on a shelf in the evidence area, a narrow room in the back of the sheriff's office investigations unit.

Threads from the man's clothing are kept...