Skeletal remains found by hunters in Conecuh County identified as missing woman from Norfolk, Virginia

Shari Saunders of Virginia

Conecuh County Sheriff Randy Brock said earlier this week that skeletal remains found by hunters in December have been positively identified as those of a missing Virginia woman, but her cause of death remains under investigation.

Shari Christine Saunders, 67, of Norfolk, Va. was last seen on video surveillance footage buying gas at the Shell-Marathon gas station at Exit 93 on Interstate Highway 65 in Evergreen on Aug. 5, 2018. Saunders, who was traveling to visit relatives in the Monroeville area, never arrived at her destination, and her car was eventually found on Aug. 13, 2018, abandoned on a dirt road off Canaan Church Road in southwestern Conecuh County, not far from the county’s borders with Escambia and Monroe counties.

Despite a widespread search for Saunders, including a nationwide missing persons bulletin, multiple law enforcement agencies, search helicopters and tracking dogs, Saunders was not found. For over two years, investigators continued to search for Saunders, interview sources of information, and follow up on leads and information that came in on a weekly basis, Brock said.

On Dec. 26, 2020, hunters found unidentified skeletal remains in a wooded area off a gated, private road that intersects with Canaan Church Road. Those remains, which were found in Conecuh County, were submitted for forensic testing in hopes of a positive identification, Brock said. The discovery of the remains was kept confidential until a positive identification could be made and a next of kin notified, Brock said.

On Friday, Brock announced that a forensic laboratory had positively identified the skeletal remains as those of Shari Saunders. Additional evidence is being evaluated by other forensic labs, and the Sheriff’s Offices in Conecuh, Monroe and Escambia counties are focusing on particular suspects. Brock noted that Saunders’ cause of death remains under investigation.

“We would like to thank the community for their willingness to help in bringing this case closer to being solved and ask that you report anything that might be of evidentiary value,” Brock said.

Anyone with additional information to provide to investigators, is asked to call the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at 251-809-0741 and ask for Investigator Smith, who is spearheading the investigation.

Saunders disappeared while making her fourth trip to the Monroeville area, and family members said that the last contact they had with Saunders was at 5:44 a.m. on Aug. 4, 2018 when she called from about 20 miles east of Columbia, S.C. During previous trips to Monroeville, Saunders would customarily call family members when she exited I-65 at Evergreen’s Exit 93. Family members, who live south of Monroeville, would then meet Saunders at the Minute Stop gas station at the intersection of U.S. Highway 84 and State Highway 21 at Ollie. Family members said that none of the family ever received a call from Saunders on Aug. 5, saying that she was at Exit 93, so none of the family went to meet her at Ollie.

Law enforcement officers began searching for Saunders on Aug. 6, just hours after she disappeared after leaving the Shell-Marathon gas station at Exit 93 in Evergreen. During the investigation, it was determined that she last used her credit card at the gas station and when investigators checked surveillance footage from that location, they watched as Saunders pulled into the parking lot just after 1 a.m. Saunders entered the station at 1:08 a.m., and she pulled out of the parking lot a few minutes later, turning left and heading west on U.S. Highway 84, towards Monroeville.

Her whereabouts remained unknown until the skeletal remains were positively identified last week.