CONCORD, N.H. — EDITOR'S NOTE: The video above aired Sept. 21, 2021.
New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella on Friday identified and connected human remains found twelve days apart at waste facilities in Belmont, New Hampshire, and Lewiston back in September.
Formella said in a release that 28-year-old Jessica Lurvey's body was found among the contents of a trash truck that arrived at a Casella Waste Systems transfer station in Belmont on Sept. 9.
On Sept. 21, 29-year-old Matthew Schofield's body was found at a solid waste facility in Lewiston, according to Formella.
Maine State Police said in September that the remains in Lewiston were found at 424 River Rd., which is a Casella Waste Systems facility.
Lurvey and Schofield were homeless, and both were using drugs at the time of their deaths, according to the release.
Formella said investigators believe the pair sought shelter from a Sept. 8 rainstorm in a large trash or recycling bin. Officials believe the bin was then mechanically loaded into a waste disposal truck, which went to the waste facility in Belmont where Lurvey’s body was found during the waste sorting process.
Schofield’s body was not discovered at the Belmont facility but was further transferred with waste products to the facility in Lewiston where his body was discovered, according to Formella.
Officials said Lurvey died from injuries from being crushed, and the manner of her death has been ruled accidental. Maine's chief medical examiner ruled Schofield's death was accidental too, resulting either from combined effects of buprenorphine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl or from being crushed. Formella said Lurvey was also using fentanyl at the time, which he said likely factored into her death.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The video below aired Sept. 21, 2021.