ST. LUCIE COUNTY — The “very decomposed” human remains found last month off a remote dirt road have been identified as 32-year-old Brock Hackworth, who was reported missing five days earlier, according to the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s officials responded to a 911 call Nov. 16 to Taylor Dairy Road north of St. Lucie Boulevard. It’s a dirt road just east of North Kings Highway in a largely rural area. Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Brian Hester has said the remspanins were “pretty hespanvily decomposed.” 

He said Hackworth’s identification was found in the area of the body, and the medical examiner was able to confirm it was that person.

Hackworth was reported missing to Fort Pierce police Nov. 11, a report states.

Caroline Roberts, 33, told investigators she’d known Hackworth for 9 years, and that they have a daughter, the report states.

Roberts told police she last saw Hackworth about 5 p.m. Nov. 6 at a hotel in the 2800 block of Reynolds Drive, which is off Okeechobee Road between Florida’s Turnpike and Interstate 95. She said she dropped him off, and that she called the hotel and learned he checked out Nov. 7.

“Caroline stated that Brock does not have any friends or family in the area,” the report states. 

In an interview last week, Roberts described Hackworth as a “very, very loving person.”

“But he didn’t always get a chance to show people that because he has social anxiety,” Roberts said. “So he was kind of introverted.” 

She said he liked to deflect awkward situations using humor.

“He did everything with his whole heart, honestly,” she said. “He did have his demons, though … with mental health and things of that nature like just everyone else.”

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Hackworth, she said, was born in Ohio and had three brothers, though one has passed.

Roberts said she is from Fort Lauderdale and met Hackworth through a friend. 

“We lived in Fort Lauderdale together for about a year and a half,” Roberts said. “And then we both moved to Ohio to Columbus, and we were there until January.”

Roberts said Hackworth was a state champion goalie in soccer in high school. He played the drums, and also was in the newspaper for skateboarding.

Roberts said she has two children from a previous relationship, and Hackworth didn’t have much experience with kids before.

“But it came like first nature to him,” Roberts said. “My kids loved him.” 

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Hackworth had a run-in with Fort Pierce police in January after investigators reported he had cocaine, fentanyl, a crack pipe and syringes. Another arrest came in Stuart in July.

Roberts said a car accident when Hackworth was 15 left him with significant injuries.

“That’s where the addiction piece came from, from having 16 surgeries on one leg,” Roberts said.

Hester said his agency is waiting on additional information from the medical examiner’s office, such as cause of death. Toxicology results typically take six to eight weeks.

“That will give a little bit clearer picture,” Hester said. “Our goal is to determine his cause of death and then to really start trying to figure out, who was this person with, who were they known to be with?”

Investigators are concerned about how he ended up where he did.

Roberts also wonders how Hackworth got to where his remains were found. She had no idea what he would be doing on Taylor Dairy Road.

“He did not have a vehicle,” Roberts said. “He does not walk.”