Dental records confirm identity

PANAMA CITY BEACH — Dental records verify the decomposed skeletal remains discovered earlier this week, concealed by years of overgrowth on a wooded lot, are that of Iraq combat veteran Michael Allen Lane, the Bay County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Friday.

Police located Lane’s Veterans Affairs ID and other personal effects along with his remains Tuesday in an undeveloped lot south of Back Beach Road (U.S. 98) between Gardenia Drive and Fernwood Street. Dental samples collected from the skeleton positively matched the military dental records of Lane, a man reported missing from his Panama City Beach home in June 2010, officials said Friday.

Although his family received closure in their four-year search for Lane, the news was not joyous.

“When someone’s family member disappears, it is horrible to never know what happened,” Stephen Lane said of the four years he didn’t know the whereabouts of his brother. “I wish I could go back and never know.”

Stephen Lane initially was contacted at his home in Arkansas after a crew of workers came across the human remains, including a shoe with a bone protruding from the top, while clearing the undergrowth from the wooded lot. Investigators recovered the skeletal remains and tatters of clothing from the undeveloped acre of land.

Decomposition and years of exposure to the elements initially made it difficult for officials to establish an identity or timeline of events, but other personal effects collected on the scene indicated the remains could be those of Michael Lane.

Michael Lane was officially reported as a missing and endangered person to the U.S. Department of Justice database in December 2010. He was 48 at the time he was reported missing by his girlfriend, Fani Biton, in June of that year. She claimed he left the residence earlier in the week, heading toward the Panama City Rescue Mission.

Lane never made it to the mission. That was the last contact anyone had with him, according to PCBPD.

Despite the confirmation, however, an official cause of death remains a mystery. The amount of decomposition could make it difficult for officials to determine how Lane ended up in the woods off the highway.

“Now we move onto the anthropology evaluation,” said Whit Majors, director of operations in the Medical Examiner’s Office. “Their findings could help us determine a cause of death, but that depends on if they see any injuries to the bones.”

Without bodily tissues to analyze for injuries or test for toxins, the medical examiner must rely on clues — if any — found by the anthropologists of Gulf Coast University, where the remains have been transported for evaluation. The anthropological evaluation can determine if Lane suffered any critical injuries to his bones before or after death. If their evaluation does not yield any evidence of injury, Lane’s official cause of death could go undetermined.

Once the evaluations conclude, family members plan to transport Michael Lane’s remains to their final resting place in Arkansas.

“At least we will finally be able to bring him home,” Stephen Lane said.