Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore has confirmed that investigators found some of the missing remains of a body found Wednesday.
Shore said the body of Seth Barton Foster, 54, was found in the crawlspace at 203 W. Earle St. in Anderson missing his head, hands and feet.
"We found the skull, we found two hands and one foot. We are still looking for one more body part. We have a cadaver dog working that area to see if they can locate that," said Shore "The parts were about in the same state as the rest of the body that was found. We are working to lift fingerprints off the fingers to match our victim. We are glad we have been able to find those to reunite with the body and hopefully help us in determining the matter of death."
Those body parts were located in an area beneath the Goodwin and Pruette Law Firm building where railroad tracks run under main street.
Shore is waiting on DNA from Foster's mother to make his identification official. But said he is confident enough in his preliminary identification to release Foster's name to the media.
Investigators said Foster's body parts had been severed.
Foster's mother, Marie Whitney, told WYFF over the phone that her son was left homeless after a troubled relationship with a woman in Belton. Whitney said her son was an alcoholic, and had been going in and out of rehab.
"(Foster) was a wonderful person and he wouldn't have harmed a fly," said Whitney. "I'm just hysterical, to tell you the truth."
Foster had a tattoo of Yosemite Sam on his right forearm and was wearing a Pendleton High School baseball hoodie with the year 2011 printed on it, investigators said.
Officers said they spoke with workers who had been at the building on behalf of the owner. They said the workers led them to a crawlspace underneath the rear of the building where the body was.
An X-ray of Foster's body showed no foreign objects, Shore said.
Shore said he has some ideas of how the Foster died, but because of the ongoing investigation he isn't able to release that information yet.
Investigators believe Foster's body was cut up at the building, but at this point don't have a motive.
Shore said whoever severed Foster's body parts might have been trying to cover up the victim's identity.
If it weren't for Foster's tattoo, Shore said it would have been a lot harder to identify the body.
"(The) police department recognized that tattoo and went back to their booking records and they pulled a record which helped us tentatively identify our victim as Mr. Foster," said Shore. "Some times the smallest thing will lead us to get answers."
While Shore is still investigating, he estimates Foster's body had been in that building anywhere between two weeks and 30 days.
Copyright 2012 by WYFF4.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Seth Barton Foster (Source: WYFF)
