A recently found skeleton belongs to a fugitive wanted on child pornography charges in South Carolina, according to Covington police.
A skull and other skeletal remains found Dec. 28 off City Pond Road in Covington were positively identified as David Sheffield through dental records, according to a statement from police Sunday.
Federal authorities alleged Sheffield made a video of himself assaulting a minor boy in the 1990s. He was charged with the production, distribution and possession of child pornography.
Sheffield lived in Aiken, S.C., where federal charges were issued by the FBI. Sheffield’s family members, who reside in South Carolina, were contacted Saturday by FBI agents and told about the findings.
The remains were sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab for examination and identified through dental records.
Nine months after the federal charges were filed in 2011, Sheffield’s car was found abandoned at an America’s Best Inn in Covington, but he was nowhere to be found. A clerk said the car had been there for months. At the time, officials issued an alert that he may have switched vehicles and continued fleeing to California, Colorado or Michigan. Police recently told Channel 2 Action News Sheffield’s remains were found less than an eighth of a mile from the inn.
Police found a firearm and boots near the remains, as well as a pair of glasses. Sheffield was known to wear glasses and the shirt they found on the remains matches a photo of Sheffield from 2010.
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