Bones found near accused killer's home

PERTH, Australia, March 5 (UPI) -- Searchers found human bones Thursday in a Western Australian limestone quarry near the home of a man charged with killing a migrant worker five years ago.

Investigators said they believe the bones are the remains of Steven David Petersen, whose family reported him missing in 2004, The West Australian reported. The remains included a shinbone.

Brett David McDonald, 37, who rents a house near the quarry, was charged with murder Wednesday. He is being held without bail pending a hearing March 18.

Detectives say McDonald killed Petersen in his backyard in a rural area south of Perth some time between October 2004 and December 2004. That would have been after Peterson's family filed a missing persons report.

Petersen was a tiler who moved from place to place, and no one appeared to have been concerned about his whereabouts until police got a tip that he had been killed.

Mark Fyfe, a senior detective sergeant, said police do not know why McDonald might have killed Peterson. Fyfe said the two men appear to have been casual acquaintances.

Fyfe refused to say how Petersen is believed to have died.