Officials will soon know if a body found Friday in an Ohio construction debris dump is that of an MSU graduate student who was last seen June 29 in East Lansing.
A team of investigators, including East Lansing police, Michigan State Police and Ohio agencies, began searching the dump near Bowling Green State University several days ago and found the body at about noon Friday, said Wood County Prosecutor Alan Mayberry.
An autopsy will be performed by the Lucas County coroner today, he said. Mayberry declined to comment on whether the body was Michelle Salerno, an MSU speech therapy graduate student.
Mayberry said he hoped to make an announcement on autopsy findings early this week.
“Obviously, if it is who we suppose it is, the body was in there for a year,” he said. “So we have to wait for some dental record comparison. If that’s inconclusive, we’ll move on to DNA testing.”
Salerno, a native of Swanton, Ohio, and a 1999 Bowling Green graduate, was reported missing July 5 after she failed to call or make several engagements she was expected to attend. No one has been charged in her disappearance or death.
Authorities believe Salerno, 26, was killed last summer. Her car, a 1986 burgundy Plymouth Reliant station wagon, was found July 6 in a downtown Toledo parking lot with blood in the backseat.
Previous air and land searches by Michigan and Ohio investigators in Mount Pleasant and Toledo were unsuccessful.
Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III declined to comment on the Salerno investigation. He said because, if the body is Salerno’s, investigators don’t know how she was killed or where and numerous agencies could be involved in the case.
“There’s a lot of jurisdictions between here and there,” he said.
Salerno’s estranged husband, Dennis Salerno, is in jail and charged with killing Larry McClanahan of Moscow, Ohio. Salerno has told police McClanahan killed his wife.
Salerno admitted to killing longtime friend McClanahan, whom he met 10 years ago in an Ohio prison, at an Ohio truck stop, according to an affidavit filed by the East Lansing Police Department.
McClanahan’s body was found with stab wounds in his neck in a shower stall at a truck stop soon after Michelle Salerno was reported missing.
Searches for Salerno’s body around the truck stop where McClanahan’s body was found also have been unsuccessful.
Police and prosecutors have long thought Dennis Salerno, 30, knew the location of his wife’s body. He reportedly was helping investigators find her remains when they began looking Thursday.
Mayberry declined to comment Sunday about Salerno’s involvement in the search for his wife. Sheriff’s Lt. Brenda Brenneman said Salerno visited the search site Thursday night.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jeremy W. Steele can be reached at steelej7@msu.edu.
