YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The Mahoning County Coroner's Office is closer to identifying the skull found on Youngstown's east side.

Dr. Joseph Ohr, the Deputy Coroner and Forensic Pathologist, says with the help of a forensic dentist, and two forensic anthropologists, including one from Youngtown State University and the other from Boston, they have now developed a profile of the deceased person.

The skull was discovered when dogs brought it to a yard on Vaughn Avenue in Youngstown. The homeowner immediately called authorities.

Along with the skull, several other bones have been found including the lower legs, upper legs, right arm and shoulder blade.

Dr. Ohr tells 21 News, "Whenever a skull is found in open ground the first order of business is to find the rest of the skeleton. There are several reasons for that. Reason number one is that I want to know where the grave site is."

In this case, even though cadaver dogs have helped to search for any other skeletal remains, the grave site has still not been found.

But the coroner's office was able to move the process along by first cleaning the bones they did find.

Dr. Ohr says the next step was to examine them and look for clues that could help develop a profile, including the sex, ancestry, and approximate age of the deceased victim.

It has now been determined that the deceased is a male, between the ages of 25 and 50, but most likely closer to 35-years-old. The person is also of mixed ancestry, in this case, African and European descent.

"And with that profile we can come up with a short list, meaning half a dozen people in this area that fit that profile. Now and only now do we trouble those already grieving families for dental records, or for perhaps a DNA sample," Dr. Ohr said.

So the next step was to go through missing person's lists generated by the Ohio Attorney General's Office, as well as the national missing person's database.

The list has been narrowed down to about half-a-dozen people.

Dr. Ohr says the most perfect profile fit is on a missing persons list provided by Youngstown police detectives.

Working as a team with detectives they will request dental records from several families that have a loved one missing.

The coroner's office says that even though the lower jaw of the skull is missing, the left upper quadrant of teeth is still intact. It appears the teeth are well cared for, and the person has multiple fillings so dental work has clearly been done.

If by some chance there is no match to the missing persons in the Youngstown area, they will try Trumbull County next and then Pennsylvania.

That's because while the skull was found in Youngstown, it was only about 1,000 yards away from the Trumbull County border, and only about two-and-a-half miles from Pennsylvania, according to Dr. Ohr.

At this point, the bones show no indication of how the person died.