WASHINGTON — With hopes of unraveling the puzzle of death, Virginia’s chief medical examiner’s office on Tuesday unveiled facial models of eight unidentified people whose remains were found in the commonwealth.

“We hope that by presenting the facial approximations to the public someone will recognize one of these individuals as their long lost loved one,” Chief Medical Examiner William Gormley said in a news release.

Forensic anthropologists and artists with the FBI’s Forensic Anthropology Services and Forensic Imaging Unit created the clay models based from the skeletal remains of five men and three women whose remains were found between 1972 and 2014.

Identifying the remains can help the investigators determine how they died and possibly provide closure for their families, Lara Newell, medical legal death investigator for the commonwealth.

“Most of these deaths are undetermined in cause and manner,” Newell said.

According to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the remains of three people were discovered at separate times in Stafford County and two sets of remains were found in Caroline County. Individual remains were also found in Henrico, James City and York counties.

“We’re working with local law enforcement authorities to help identify these individuals, and we encourage anyone with information that may lead to identifying these individuals profiled to contact us,” Gormley said.

Photographs of the composites were entered in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Systems registry, a web-based search engine funded by the National Institute of Justice.

There are currently 283 unidentified people statewide, with some remains dating back to the 1960s. Newell said the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner tries to have composites made whenever they have remains that allow for it.

Newell said these types of composites have led to at least six positive identifications in Virginia.

Those with information about a person in one of these images are asked to call the medical examiner’s office at 804-786-3174. The images are also available online.