Police investigate remains found near site where Springfield, Vt., man was reported missing

CHESTER, Vt. — Vermont State Police are awaiting the results of an autopsy as they investigate the discovery of human remains north of downtown Chester.

State police were told Thursday evening that a “badly decomposed body” had been found along Wymans Falls Road, according to a news release from State Police on Friday.

Detectives with the State Police Major Crime Unit and Bureau of Criminal Investigations, along with other troopers and Chester police, were investigating, and the remains were taken to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington for an autopsy.

The release said there was “no indication to suggest a threat to public safety.”

Asked if the body could be that of a 39-year-old Springfield, Vt., man with Hartford ties who went missing in March, state police spokesman Adam Silverman said, “We’re certainly investigating any possibility related to that missing person, or any other person.”

Joshua Webster was last seen walking from a home on Regina Lane in Chester, about 2 miles south of Wymans Falls Road, on March 7, and he was reported missing by a family member who called Hartford police on March 15. Police later searched a home Webster owns on Quechee West Hartford Road in Hartford.

Anyone with information related to the remains discovered in Chester was asked to call Vermont State Police in Westminster at 802-722-4600.