Human remains found in Fayetteville belong to man missing since 2018

Fayetteville police on Friday identified human remains found Oct. 16 in a wooded area.

Fayetteville police officers responded to a wooded area along the 3900 block of Bragg Boulevard around 11:27 a.m.

Officers located remains, later identified as belonging to Devonte Lawrence, 27, who was reported missing by his mother on April 13, 2018.

Police said the remains had been in the area for “an extended amount of time.”

Lawrence was last seen in April 2018 at the Omni Cinemas on Sycamore Dairy Road in Fayetteville. He was wearing a white T-shirt and gray or white shorts when he went missing.

Family members dropped him off at the theater, and he wasn't seen again, according to a post on the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Crime Stoppers website.

The Fayetteville Police said the department’s homicide unit is working closely with the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh to determine the cause of death.