Four vertebrae, a pelvis, a tailbone and the top portions of a right and left femur, unearthed Friday, are the newest pieces in the puzzle of Patrick Kenney's death.

The man convicted of murdering Mr. Kenney, Bryan Sedlak, led detectives to a remote, undisclosed location, where they found scattered bones that appeared to have been severed by a power saw.

For Mr. Sedlak, it was a last-minute effort to earn leniency at sentencing, which was scheduled for yesterday before Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning but postponed until Aug. 11 to allow DNA testing to confirm whether those bones belong to Mr. Kenney.

For the Kenney family, yesterday's hearing, in which the discovery was publicly revealed for the first time, was yet another heart-wrenching twist in a gruesome case that began with the Feb. 2, 2005, disappearance of the 22-year-old Mr. Kenney.

Mr. Sedlak, 37, of Greenfield, was convicted of third-degree murder and abuse of a corpse after a jury trial in February. Before sending Mr. Sedlak off to jail, Judge Manning told defense attorney Paul Boas that his client "might want to rethink his story" if he wanted less than the maximum penalty of 21 to 42 years in prison.

Mr. Sedlak admitted killing Mr. Kenney, of Jefferson Hills, with a rifle in the back of a Homestead tanning salon, but he testified that it was in self-defense as Mr. Kenney tried to rob him in the midst of a cocaine binge.

Mr. Sedlak testified that a friend, Robert Hoover, got rid of the body and never told him where he put it. Mr. Hoover denied helping to dispose of the corpse. Mr. Sedlak said he only heard rumors later about the body's location.

On Friday, his defense team informed Assistant District Attorney Lisa Pellegrini that Mr. Sedlak was willing to lead detectives to the remains. Judge Manning said the location will not be disclosed to protect the scientific integrity of the site.

Ms. Pellegrini said that Mr. Sedlak was less forthcoming than he could have been about the location of the remains and they are searching an area too wide even to take cadaver dogs. The bones were located after several hours of searching, Ms. Pellegrini said, and she asked that Mr. Sedlak be more precise in describing where the body is because the family is especially interested in finding Mr. Kenney's skull.

Ms. Pellegrini also said that Mr. Sedlak remained mum about how the body was dismembered and how it got there.

Mr. Boas protested that his client has been as compliant as possible with prosecutors' demands.

Before the trial, sources told the Post-Gazette, prosecutors had offered Mr. Sedlak a two- to four-year prison sentence if he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and revealed the location of the remains. Mr. Sedlak turned it down, opting for a self-defense argument that failed with jurors.

This time, there were no promises or agreements about what Mr. Sedlak might get for giving up the body, or even a framework for how the search would go.

"We didn't have time to do it in any organized fashion," defense attorney Lisa Middleman told Judge Manning. "We just went."

Detectives and Mr. Sedlak are expected to return to the site for another search, but the parties -- including the Kenney family, at the request of prosecutors -- declined to comment after yesterday's hearing.

Shackled and shuffling down the courthouse hallway, on his way back to jail, Mr. Sedlak turned his head as a reporter asked if he would say why he chose this moment to reveal the location of the man he killed four years ago.

"Not right now," he responded. "I will, though."