Unidentified body found in Sarasota

SARASOTA (FOX 13) - Police in Sarasota say it’s too soon to know if human remains found this afternoon belong a teenager missing for over six months.

Jabez Spann, 14, was last seen September 4.  Court documents suggest he witnessed a murder a week before he vanished; the teen is listed as a witness to the August 28 murder of Travis Combs.  

Combs, 31, was found with a gunshot wound to the upper torso in a grassy lot near 22nd Street and North Orange Avenue. Another witness, later charged as an accessory after the fact, allegedly said he saw Spann walk out of a house nearby as the shooting happened.

"It is a horrible feeling I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, not a day goes by we don't think about him," said Latohya Jakes, Spann's Aunt. "Right now we're just scared, we don't know if its him or not and we're nervous we also want closure."

Police and relatives have regularly come forward since September, begging for tips in the case, without success.  

Now, police say, a body was found just a few blocks away from where he was last seen, in a lot along the 1900 block of Gillespie Avenue.  Witnesses told FOX 13 that they spotted bones this morning in a watery ditch.

The SPD Dive Team, Criminal Investigations Division, and crime scene technicians are all on the scene, working to come up with an identity.

"Moving forward we can identify through dental records or DNA and both of those can take several weeks or several months," said Sarasota Police spokesperson Genevieve Judge.