A nearly complete human skeleton that looks to be at least a century old was recently discovered in the Chesapeake Bay by a Maryland man.
According to NBC Washington,On November 4, George Oliver, a Calvert County resident, was strolling around the bay’s shores in search of fossils, as he frequently did.
It was at low tide on the bay when he saw a casket. A practically complete human skeleton was also found within the casket.
Oliver reported to the station that although the casket was fully buried in water, he could still see it. The archeological society was contacted when he called the sheriff’s department.
According to NBC Washington, officials looked at the remains within the coffin but did not remove any.
Oliver was concerned about what would happen to the remains if he left them there, so he decided to dig up the coffin and gently remove the skeleton, according to NBC Washington. Oliver put the casket back together himself, according to the station.
Oliver told NBC Washington, “You could not tell that there was human remains when I first found it.” “You just thought that it was full of beach sand.”
Oliver gave the remains to the office of the Calvert County sheriff.
Finding human remains this old is not uncommon, but finding a full skeleton still intact is extremely uncommon, Kelcey Ward, a crime scene technician with the sheriff’s office, told NBC Washington.
Actually, Oliver has previously found human remains. About 15 years ago, he discovered a leg bone close to the same spot, according to NBC Washington. Oliver thought that leg bone might have been a component of the recently uncovered skeleton when he discovered the coffin.
According to Ward, it’s “probably the most we’ve had of one body,” the station reported. Given that it was discovered in the coffin, she believed it was likely that the skeleton was still whole.
A request for comment and additional details about the discovery was not immediately answered by a Calvert County Sheriff’s Office official.
The skeleton looks to be at least 100 years old based on the coffin’s structure and the state of the bones, but their origin is still unknown, according to NBC Washington.
Although Ward was unable to identify the skeleton’s age, race, or gender, she claimed to have a general notion of how the deceased individual passed away.
“We did think it was quite interesting that he had a kind of a defect to his skull here,” Ward stated. “See, if I was working this as a more recent case and I found that, I would venture to guess maybe a gunshot wound or blunt force trauma of some sort, but obviously not having the rest of the skull makes that kind of difficult.”
The coffin and bones will be reburied at a nearby church cemetery, according to NBC Washington.
Oliver, however, told the newspaper that he believes the coffin should be on display because “this is somebody’s craftsmanship.”
“It’s a shame that it had to happen the way it happened,” Oliver stated. “But I think it’s awesome that we found him or her, and now they’ll be able to rest.”
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