UNSOLVED PA - Greenville, Human arm bones under demolished house, Aug'08

A forensic anthropology team from Mercyhurst College, Erie, spent several hours Thursday evening excavating the property at 103 Shenango St. but found no more bones or evidence related to them, team leader Dr. Steve Symes said Friday.

“It seems to be an isolated find,” he said, adding they also searched a nearby Dumpster and truck containing demolition debris.

The team wrapped up its work about 8:30 p.m. and hopes to complete the investigation at the college within the next few days. But no one expects to learn much more than whether the bones are male or female, he said.

The three bones that make up one adult human arm were found Thursday morning while a crew was tearing down the house behind Sheetz to make room for a larger convenience store.

The bones are in good condition, which is surprising because the excavator could have damaged them when the machine broke through the cement floor, Symes said.

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The finding had the house’s most recent occupant scratching his head. Noel Carroll rented the first-floor apartment of the home from Dr. Sam Orr for the last 22 years and still doesn’t know what to make of the situation.

“It will be very interesting to see what they find,” Carroll said.

He spoke with the forensic team and from what he learned, it sounds like the bones were found under a small section of the basement that had a wooden floor, not cement like the rest of it.

The basement was like that when Orr bought the house in 1971 from Jack and Louise Stoeber, Orr said from his Gaffney, S.C., home.

He said he believes it was originally built in the early 1900s for Mrs. Stoeber’s father, Al Keck.

Orr, who served as Mercer County District Attorney from 1976 until the mid ’80s until he enrolled in medical school, moved out of the house in 1986 and was very interested to hear about the bones, which he hopes can be identified.

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GREENVILLE — The human arm bones found Aug. 7 under a demolished Greenville house belonged to a woman, but could be nothing more than part of an anatomical specimen, according to forensic scientists who examined the three bones.

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GREENVILLE — Forensic experts are still puzzled about human arm bones found Aug. 7 underneath a house being demolished in Greenville.

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Dirkmaat and his colleague Dr. Steve Symes, both board-certified forensic anthropologists at the college, are sticking with their original theory that the bones belonged to a young to middle-age woman and were likely part of an anatomical specimen used for teaching or studying.

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summer_breeze said:

Unearthed arm bones still puzzling experts

October 21, 2008
By Monica Pryts



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