"We're investigating whether this is part of a yellow fever burial site thanks to a tip from a construction worker from the 1970s who remembered finding bones back then," Buttersworth said. "It makes sense because the body is too old to be from an active case."
Police said there was no evidence of bullet wounds or other foul play on the skeleton. However, that does not necessarily mean the remains are not the result of a homicide, Buttersworth said.
But that's not very likely, he added.
The Savannah Morning News reported in May 1977 that 13 skeletons were unearthed by a bulldozer. The skeletons were about 100 years old and likely the victims of yellow fever, a disease responsible for thousands of deaths in Savannah in the 1800s.
Several bones were also found at the same site in the mid-1960s when a septic tank was being installed, former Thunderbolt Mayor Hal Lane told the Morning News.
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Like the recent remains, the 1977 construction crews never found coffins. However, police told the Morning News in 1977 that they did see imprints of wooden boxes at some of the sites.
And just like the skeletons found in 1977, the remains found last month were laid out ceremonially, on its back with its arms extended downward, police said.
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Other historians told police in 1970s the remains may be from a "pest house" in the area, which housed elderly, sick, alcoholics and indigents, news reports said. Reports say that the pest house residents were wrapped in sheets or blankets and buried on the river's banks.
