WISE -- Wise County authorities await determinations by the state medical examiner in Roanoke before identifying the victims of a double homicide.
The bodies, believed to be of a male and a female, were recovered by a state anthropology team Friday from a shallow grave located on the property of 8320 Crabtree Hollow Road, located in the Duncan Gap section of the county.
Members of the Wise County Sheriff's Office and Virginia State Police made the gruesome discovery Thursday night while investigating a tip involving the whereabouts of a married couple.
Sheriff Ronnie Oakes confirmed Monday the couple, Robert and Sharon Coleman, both 62 of the Crabtree Hollow Road address, were the subject of a weeklong missing persons investigation. But he said authorities won't assume the bodies found last week are the Colemans until autopsies positively confirm their identity.
Robert Coleman's 39-year-old son, Mark Edward Coleman, also of 8320 Crabtree Hollow Road, was arrested and charged with two counts of murder Thursday night subsequent to the discovery of the grave.
The sheriff's department and VSP cordoned off the site until state experts could exhume the bodies Friday and transport them to Roanoke for autopsy.
On Monday, Oakes said local authorities are "just waiting on the (autopsy) results. Waiting on DNA and other determinations for positive identification."
The bodies may have been illicitly interred for several weeks, Oakes said.
"We're thinking now, perhaps as much as a couple of months," he said. "But that's something they will tell us when the autopsies are complete. They can tell us pretty close to the time and date."
As soon as positive identification is provided by experts in Roanoke, Oakes said "the public will be made aware."
Last week, Oakes said an anonymous tip permitted law enforcement officers to "track down leads" and search the home at 8320 Crabtree Hollow Road.
Mark Coleman, meanwhile, faces an arraignment hearing at 9 a.m. Wednesday in Wise County Circuit Court. He is currently held without bond in the regional jail in Duffield.