Bones Discovery Detours Road JobC. Everett Koop, the nation’s former surgeon general, once speculated that people are fascinated by human skeletal remains because, “It’s the last part of us to disappear.” When construction crews found a complete human skeleton on July 18, 2005, in the upstate New York Village of Mt. Morris, the townspeople’s reactions amply illustrated Koop’s remark.
The skeleton found just 42 in. below the center of Chapel Street caused the construction worker employed by Sealand Contractors Corp. who was digging there to “fly from the hole.” Soon the police were called, and the yellow tape went up indicating a crime scene was under investigation.
The story of a body buried under a road quickly spread through the coffee shops and a crowd began to grow. The rumor mill’s best bets were that the skeleton was a mafia hit or the body of a local fellow who disappeared in 1970. Far less ominous but a lot more interesting, the well-preserved skeleton proved to be a pioneer woman from the late 1700s, buried in what was then a church cemetery yard.
Police, forensic experts, and a forensic archeologist quickly ruled out criminal intent. Coffin hardware, including wooden screws, made it immediately apparent that this was a formal burial and not a crime scene.
