Drexel, Mo. ? Investigators searching a rural Cass County property for human remains said Monday they had found up to 50 pieces of evidence, including a hatchet and dozens of bone fragments.

Authorities said they have searched about 20 percent of the 3-acre lot since Michael Lee Shaver Jr., 33, told investigators he had killed seven men and scattered their remains on the property near Drexel in rural Cass County, 55 miles south of Kansas City. Authorities said they expected to be searching there for several days.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Cass County Sheriff’s Maj. Jeff Weber said during a news conference Monday. “We will take this as slow as we possibly can.”

Weber said scores of law enforcement officers were meticulously sifting through areas that Shaver had indicated would yield clues to the homicides authorities said Shaver told them he committed during drug deals so he could steal their cash and drugs.

Shaver, of Drexel, was arraigned Monday on a single count of first-degree murder and one count of armed criminal action. He was being held on $1 million bond.

Weber and Cass County prosecutor Teresa Hensley said evidence was being sent to the Jackson County medical examiner for processing, and that authorities had not increased the number of confirmed victims beyond the bone fragments of two people investigators found Friday.

Cass County authorities mark off an area where they are investigating the deaths of at least two people near Drexel, Mo. Bone fragments were found on top of the ground early Saturday on property northeast of Drexel in western Missouri, said Cpl. Kevin Tieman. He said two sets of remains were found, but authorities believed more would be found.

Meanwhile, Weber and Hensley asked the public to give them any information about missing friends or relatives who may be one of the victims. They said they hadn’t received many calls, which could support Shaver’s claim that his victims were involved in illegal drugs.

Hensley said she was comfortable that she had enough evidence to convict Shaver of the single murder count even though authorities have not been able to identify the man. But, she added, “It would sure be nice to have a victim.”

According to the affidavit filed with the charges, Shaver told authorities he met the man at an abandoned trailer in Kansas City, Kan., where he bought methamphetamine from the victim. The affidavit says Shaver later invited the man to his home for another drug transaction.

Shaver allegedly shot the man while he was walking to the back door of Shaver’s home. According to the affidavit, Shaver told authorities he took some meth and $200 from the body, dragged it to a wooded area and dismembered and burned it.

On Monday, close to 40 officers from the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and police departments in nearby Raymore, Belton and Harrisonville could be seen using sifting trays to comb dirt on the property. A roped-off grid of 600 4-foot-by-4-foot squares kept the searchers from wandering into areas they hadn’t checked.

“They are looking on their hands and knees, digging and sifting the dirt,” said Cass County Sheriff’s Cpl. Kevin Tieman. “We’re looking for such small fragments of bone and other evidence.”

Authorities say Shaver told them he would lure the victims – all men between 20 and 40 years old and from the Kansas City area – to his home, shoot them and steal their cash and drugs. Authorities also said Shaver told them he dismembered the bodies with an ax or hatchet and burned the body parts in a fireplace in his bedroom. After smashing the skull and bones with a hammer, he scattered the ashes and bone fragments in his back yard, authorities said Shaver told them.

Investigators said they believe the deaths began occurring about five years ago, around the time Shaver moved into the house.

The most recent remains are only months old, they said.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Shaver and another man, Nathan Wasmer, 27, of Peculiar, on Friday after a failed carjacking.

Officials said Shaver told deputies as he was being placed into a patrol car that he knew about human remains on the property where he lived with his mother and that he wanted to talk to someone about it.

Officials on Monday would not comment on whether other people could be charged in the killings.