LAKE LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Sheriff's detectives working a homicide case in the high desert that started with the discovery of a severed human hand found more remains Wednesday.

"What appears to be some human remains have been found in the general vicinity of where the hand was found," sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

About 8 p.m. Tuesday, someone found the hand near the 41700 block of 170th Street East -- not far from Challenger Middle School. An initial search of the area with cadaver dogs turned up no other body parts, Whitmore said, but added that "perhaps this is another piece to an unraveling puzzle."

Whitmore said detectives have no reason to believe the severed hand had anything to do with the school, and that students and their parents should not worry.

A sheriff's special recovery team was working with coroner's investigators in an attempt to identify whoever lost the hand -- or worse -- and detectives are working to match the remains to anyone reported missing in the area, Whitmore said.