17-05-2025
Human remains found in Clermont County identified as 2022 overdose death victim
Human remains founds in Clermont County recently were identified as those of a man whose body went missing after he died of an overdose three years ago.
The Clermont County Coroner's Office said in a May 16 news release that the remains, found April 19 and 20 in the 1500 block of Barger Road in Washington Township, belonged to Roger Shane Bruce, 51, of Felicity, Ohio. Bruce was reported missing in early 2022 by another man, 31-year-old Zachary Scott.
The identification process involved a comprehensive physical examination conducted by a forensic anthropologist and DNA analysis performed by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation's DNA Laboratory, according to the release.
'This identification brings a measure of closure to a tragic and prolonged period of uncertainty," Brian Treon, Clermont County coroner, said in the release. "Our thoughts are with Mr. Bruce's family as they navigate this difficult time.'
In 2023, Scott pleaded guilty to gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence after authorities accused him of disposing of Bruce's body after he died of an overdose.
More than a year earlier, in January 2022, Scott, Bruce and two other people had driven to Cincinnati to buy heroin , Clermont County prosecutors said. After they came back to Clermont County, and the two other passengers were dropped off, Bruce overdosed and died while with Scott.
Scott then left Bruce's body in a location that was unknown at the time and misdirected the investigation into Bruce's disappearance by providing several false locations to authorities, the prosecutor's office said.
On Jan. 21, 2022, Scott called 911 and said Bruce overdosed at the 2400 block of Laurel Point Isabel Road in Washington Township, then reported that Bruce "took off" after he administered a dose of Narcan, according to the Clermont County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies searched the area but didn't find Bruce, officials said, and his parents reported him missing the next day.
Two days after the reported overdose, Scott admitted to investigators that he lied in his 911 call, saying instead that Bruce actually ran off near the 1600 block of Beckelhymer Road in Moscow, Ohio, a criminal complaint stated. Scott told a detective that he searched in the cold for Bruce for several hours but never found the man.
The sheriff's office said in court filings that Scott's later statements to detectives were misleading as well and that Scott also denied going to Cincinnati to buy drugs, though Bruce's phone records and witness statements proved otherwise.
In the months after Bruce went missing, detectives searched throughout Washington Township using drones, bloodhounds and cadaver dogs, but each time they came up empty-handed.
The investigation into the circumstances surrounding Bruce's death is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call Clermont County's investigation unit at 513-732-7545.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Human remains found in Clermont County ID'd as Roger Shane Bruce
