The discovery of the remains gave a jolt of panic to friends and family of Meier, last seen June 4th leaving her home driving her red Cadillac Escalade. Two women were photographed using Meier’s credit card the next day at a nearby Wal-Mart.
NBC Miami has also learned police recovered portions of a skull, spine and pelvic bone as well as two limb bones and some limited soft tissue from the scene.
“The examination of the bones in a preliminary review show that most likely this was a black, young woman, who probably died less than a year before, considering the amount of soft tissue that was found, and perhaps even as little as 6 months,” Perper said.
That time frame, if it holds true, would also rule out Sharon Elson of Hollywood, a black female missing since May.
The emotional pain of friends and family of missing people is the fuel that helps motivate the professionals - the detectives, the crime scene technicians, the public works crews, even the scuba divers - to solve the mystery of the human remains.
Sharon Solano, a close friend of Meier’s, rushed to the scene of the canal Monday. She came to tell detective about black hair extensions that she put in the missing 40-year-old's hair.
“But I can't take not knowing,” she said tearfully. “That's the hardest part."
Perper described ways experts can quickly tell whether the remains belong to a woman or a man through the pelvis; white or black through the nasal bones; old or young through these little skull cracks.
"So we take all this information together,” he said, “and we arrive to the conclusion who is the person. And then the question is who specifically is the person."
Sometimes, forensic sketch artists can reconstruct the face using the distinct shape of the skull and facial bones.
“And the Sheriff's department now has a special unit in which they reconstruct the skull, like add on the skull the missing soft tissue," said Perper. "So you get a fair, good representation of the face.”
And if the remains still have soft tissue, not just bones, it helps point to injuries such as a bullet wound or blunt trauma, and provides DNA to match with relatives of missing persons.
"And when there's identification of a missing person,” he said, “there is a closure for a grieving family. And that's something which I believe is very valuable."
It’s something Meier’s friend Sharon Solano has yet to achieve. She concedes she goes to pieces "every time I hear there is a body….I don't know where she is. I don't know what happened to her."
