Tweet
Skull, bones found in abandoned house in Lancaster
Aug 22, 2008 @ 01:56 PM
By 2008/The Herald-Dispatch
Herald-Dispatch.com
LANCASTER, Ky. (AP) — A central Kentucky official found a casket containing human bones while searching for salvageable material in a row of old houses.
Garrard County Deputy Judge-Executive James Bushnell said he opened the casket, found in an abandoned house that had once been a funeral home and was later used as a Halloween haunted house, and saw the bones.
For a moment, Bushnell didn’t think it was an actual coffin but rather a gag one because of its older design. But, once he realized the skull and bones were real, the coroner was called in.
“Inside I saw a pile of bones and a skull. At first, after first opening the coffin, I didn’t think the bones were real. But then I looked at them for a minute, and I realized they were the real deal,” Bushnell told The Advocate-Messenger in Danville.
Garrard County Coroner Daryl Hodge said the bones appeared to be those of an 8- to 10-year-old child. Based on the style and condition of the casket, the remains could be more than 100 years old.
“No one had ever really seen anything like it before,” Hodge said of the coffin’s style.
Forensic anthropologist Dr. Emily Craig is scheduled to examine the bones next week in Frankfort. Hodge hopes she can determine the person’s age, race and sex.
Why the bones were in the house, which is scheduled for demolition, is something of a mystery.
The previous owner no longer lives in Lancaster.
And, in a truly strange twist, the coffin apparently was on display for during the Halloween season for patrons to see.
James Davis of Lancaster ran the haunted house during Halloween seasons in the 1980s and early 1990s. The haunted house was free, and Davis said the idea was just to have a little bit of fun.
“Now that was really a good time,” he said. “We had a lot of people come by and go in it.”
Davis said Johnson Funeral Home owned the property years ago and left the coffin and everything in it behind. Davis said he never opened the coffin while using it to add some realism to the haunted house.
“Well, I was quite surprised, as you can imagine. I was very surprised,” said Davis, who also said he would not have used the coffin had he known there were bones inside.
Aug 22, 2008 @ 01:56 PM
By 2008/The Herald-Dispatch
Herald-Dispatch.com
LANCASTER, Ky. (AP) — A central Kentucky official found a casket containing human bones while searching for salvageable material in a row of old houses.
Garrard County Deputy Judge-Executive James Bushnell said he opened the casket, found in an abandoned house that had once been a funeral home and was later used as a Halloween haunted house, and saw the bones.
For a moment, Bushnell didn’t think it was an actual coffin but rather a gag one because of its older design. But, once he realized the skull and bones were real, the coroner was called in.
“Inside I saw a pile of bones and a skull. At first, after first opening the coffin, I didn’t think the bones were real. But then I looked at them for a minute, and I realized they were the real deal,” Bushnell told The Advocate-Messenger in Danville.
Garrard County Coroner Daryl Hodge said the bones appeared to be those of an 8- to 10-year-old child. Based on the style and condition of the casket, the remains could be more than 100 years old.
“No one had ever really seen anything like it before,” Hodge said of the coffin’s style.
Forensic anthropologist Dr. Emily Craig is scheduled to examine the bones next week in Frankfort. Hodge hopes she can determine the person’s age, race and sex.
Why the bones were in the house, which is scheduled for demolition, is something of a mystery.
The previous owner no longer lives in Lancaster.
And, in a truly strange twist, the coffin apparently was on display for during the Halloween season for patrons to see.
James Davis of Lancaster ran the haunted house during Halloween seasons in the 1980s and early 1990s. The haunted house was free, and Davis said the idea was just to have a little bit of fun.
“Now that was really a good time,” he said. “We had a lot of people come by and go in it.”
Davis said Johnson Funeral Home owned the property years ago and left the coffin and everything in it behind. Davis said he never opened the coffin while using it to add some realism to the haunted house.
“Well, I was quite surprised, as you can imagine. I was very surprised,” said Davis, who also said he would not have used the coffin had he known there were bones inside.
Comment