The Indiana State Police forensic laboratory will be testing a clump of hair hooked by a fisherman on Saturday angling near the warm water discharge of Mittal Steel USA’s Burns Harbor facility.

The clump—about the size of a “saucer” and brownish in color—appears to be human, DNR Conservation Officer Gene Davis told the Chesterton Tribune today, but at this point its origin is unknown. The hair, he noted, is not attached to any skin or other organic material and is simply loose in a clump.

Davis said that he has an appointment to turn the hair over to the custody of the ISP’s Lowell District Post. Technicians will then test the hair to determine whether it’s human and, if so, will attempt to extract a useable sample of DNA should it be possible to match it to a missing person.

The clump of hair was hooked late Saturday morning by a Mittal Steel employee fishing off a beachy stretch near the warm water discharge just east of the Port of Indiana, Porter Fire Chief Lewis Craig said.

The PFD’s Dive/Rescue Team was mustered at 10:58 a.m., after the employee alerted authorities to his find, and divers immediately hit the water, approximately 12 feet deep in that area. After a search lasting nearly four hours, however, they came up empty-handed and cleared the scene at 2:49 p.m.

Craig said that the Dive/Rescue Team will dive the area again if the ISP establishes that the hair is human.

Mittal Steel permits its employees to fish near the warm water discharge, Craig noted.

Posted 1/28/2008