SANDPOINT - A portion of a skull discovered in the Hoodoo Valley last week has been ruled out as being that of wildlife.

"There's a preliminary determination that it's human," Bonner County sheriff's Capt. Ror Lakewold said Wednesday.

Lakewold said visual identifiers on the skull are more consistent with a human skull than with an animal of that size.

"We have found other evidence to conclude that it is human," said Lakewold, who declined to elaborate on the nature of that evidence.

Lakewold also declined to say if there was damage to the skull which would be indicative of violence or foul play.

"It's still under investigation," he said.

A person walking through the woods on June 10 discovered what appears to be the top portion of a skull. The fragment was found off the beaten path and appears to have been there for some time.

The sheriff's office is still in the process of determining who will analyze the skull to verify it's human.

"We might be successful in extracting DNA from the skull. However, it's so early (on in the investigation) that that's relatively speculative," Lakewold said.

The sheriff's office has been judicious about releasing information to protect the ongoing investigation, and to avoid causing undue alarm or raising false hopes of those who have missing loved ones in Bonner County.

There are 12 missing persons cases in Bonner County, according to the Idaho State Police Missing Persons Clearinghouse. The disappearances date back to the 1980s and some are as recent as April.

At least two of the disappearances are presumed drownings at Priest Lake.

Lakewold said the sheriff's office hopes to get test results as quickly as possible, but the turnaround time is dependent upon the depth of the analysis that can be conducted.

"We are doing what we can to make it as expedient as possible," he said.