Coroner: Missing Man Fell into Shredder at Recycling Plant and Died

A man who went missing two months ago in South Carolina evidently fell into a shredding machine and died, officials report.

“Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger said small pieces of a human body were found around the machine that Duncan Alexander Burrell Gordon, 20, was working on at Industrial Recovery and Recycling in Greer,” the State reported Thursday.

Officials with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office located tissue on a conveyor belt that was later tested and matched to the DNA of the young man’s parents.

The machine was previously checked by Gordon’s father, who is a supervisor at the facility, as well as by a supervisor with the sheriff’s office, investigators with a cadaver K-9, and another official when material was found underneath its belt.

The man had been working on top of the machine when he vanished, in a very noisy area of the plant.

A photo showed the outside of the plant where the incident occurred:

Missing worker's remains found in plastic recycling machine at South Carolina plant https://t.co/TIAlJWup0j pic.twitter.com/rGZ3WNE7yO

— FOX8 WGHP (@myfox8) July 7, 2022

Meanwhile, authorities said they spoke with the family and recycling operation about closing the missing person case, adding they were unable to issue a conventional death certificate, Fox Carolina reported Wednesday.

“State regulations require another remedy for the family to get closure because there is no body. The family has been made aware of the process,” said Clevenger:

According to the State report, the machine had been turned off and on several times, and 60,000 pounds of plastic had been processed since the man disappeared.

“I can confirm the material is consistent with human fat, microscopically minute particles of skin and small pieces of bone,” Clevenger noted.

Gordon’s father expressed his grief over the loss.

“I’m lost without my son. We were together 24/7 and now all I can do is cry and go in his room and tell him how much I love him and miss him.”

OSHA is working to determine if there were any safety violations during the incident, a review that typically takes several weeks.