State investigators have confirmed that bones discovered at the Dawson County Transfer Station in August are human remains.

Dawson County Sheriff's spokesman Capt. Tony Wooten said DNA from the bones is being examined to determine any matches with missing persons cases.

The bones were found by county workers in a backpack on Aug. 22.

At the time of the discovery, Sheriff Billy Carlisle said the owners of the backpack told authorities they had found the bones on an island at Lake Allatoona in Cherokee County.

"They said they found the skeleton of an old horse there and said they picked it up years ago and took them home for some reason," Carlisle said in August.

The bones were sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab for testing.

They were confirmed as human on Thursday.

Carlisle said it is too early in the investigation to say if foul play is suspected.

"We are re-interviewing the person who threw them in the dump and trying to get further information on how they received them, and then we'll see where that leads," he said.

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