Post by Bonnie on Oct 31, 2012 10:20:02 GMT -5
Fallen tree on New Haven Green unearths human skeleton
Published: Wednesday, October 31, 2012
By William Kaempffer, Register Staff
wkaempffer@nhregister.com
NEW HAVEN – Talk about an eerie Halloween story. Hurricane turned Superstorm Sandy toppled a majestic old oak on the Upper Green and intertwined in the dirt and roots was a human skeleton.
Police were called, as was the state medical examiner.
But there was no horror story to be told.
The very old bones likely are centuries old dating back to when the Green was used as a cemetery during colonial times until the Grove Street cemetery was chartered in 1797. There remain an estimated 5,000 people buried under the Green.
The tree toppled sometime during the evening on Monday during high winds from the hurricane. On Tuesday, a passerby noticed something unusual. It looked like human bones. She contacted police.
By Tuesday afternoon, police were there in number and had contacted the medical examiner.
Finding human bones isn’t that uncommon in the city but it often does draw a crowd.
Last year, workers discovered several skeletal remains while excavating for an addition at Yale-New Haven Hospital on York Street. Tony Griego, a retired police sergeant, security guard at Y-NH and local historian, said the site where the bones were found is the location of an old cemetery used by the city’s first Catholic church.
nhregister.com/articles/2012/10/31/news/new_haven/doc50903ff79c7d9176762389.txt
Published: Wednesday, October 31, 2012
By William Kaempffer, Register Staff
wkaempffer@nhregister.com
NEW HAVEN – Talk about an eerie Halloween story. Hurricane turned Superstorm Sandy toppled a majestic old oak on the Upper Green and intertwined in the dirt and roots was a human skeleton.
Police were called, as was the state medical examiner.
But there was no horror story to be told.
The very old bones likely are centuries old dating back to when the Green was used as a cemetery during colonial times until the Grove Street cemetery was chartered in 1797. There remain an estimated 5,000 people buried under the Green.
The tree toppled sometime during the evening on Monday during high winds from the hurricane. On Tuesday, a passerby noticed something unusual. It looked like human bones. She contacted police.
By Tuesday afternoon, police were there in number and had contacted the medical examiner.
Finding human bones isn’t that uncommon in the city but it often does draw a crowd.
Last year, workers discovered several skeletal remains while excavating for an addition at Yale-New Haven Hospital on York Street. Tony Griego, a retired police sergeant, security guard at Y-NH and local historian, said the site where the bones were found is the location of an old cemetery used by the city’s first Catholic church.
nhregister.com/articles/2012/10/31/news/new_haven/doc50903ff79c7d9176762389.txt
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