Skeletons in the Closet...

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sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

Well, in the basement.

GIBSON, La. – A real estate agent showing a house got to the basement and found about 100 human bones in a corner.

James Kenny, a forensic investigator with the Terrebonne Parish Coroner's Office, says the bones found Saturday were so old that dirt had saturated the marrow inside them. He says they probably are remains of Native Americans buried long before the house was built.

Kenny says he learned that the previous residents would often find bones while mowing the lawn or doing yard work, and would put them in the basement.

Half of the split-level house is on top of a circular mound, which parish officials suggest may be an Indian burial mound.

Neither the agent nor the home's owner would talk to The Courier of Houma.
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Sounds like they are asking for a real life poltergeist.
 
C

Chazwozel

sixpackshaker said:
Well, in the basement.

GIBSON, La. – A real estate agent showing a house got to the basement and found about 100 human bones in a corner.

James Kenny, a forensic investigator with the Terrebonne Parish Coroner's Office, says the bones found Saturday were so old that dirt had saturated the marrow inside them. He says they probably are remains of Native Americans buried long before the house was built.

Kenny says he learned that the previous residents would often find bones while mowing the lawn or doing yard work, and would put them in the basement.

Half of the split-level house is on top of a circular mound, which parish officials suggest may be an Indian burial mound.

Neither the agent nor the home's owner would talk to The Courier of Houma.
Click to expand...
Sounds like they are asking for a real life poltergeist.
Click to expand...
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Whoa! They found bones and didn't tell anyone? Creepy!

I can see why, though. If they turned it in and found it was an Indian burial ground they may have had to move.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

Let's see, there is a mound in the region that the Caddo Indians called home (a mound building tribe,) and there are very old bones sticking out of it... and it "may" be a burial mound?
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Hey, there was a Simpsons Halloween episode about this. I'll bet it ends with the house imploding, just watch.
 
Fun Size

Fun Size

Like it wasn't hard enough to sell a tacky house like that to begin with. Didn't anyone ever tell them that people in crass houses shouldn't stow bones?
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
D'aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

---------- Post added at 10:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:36 AM ----------

Seriously though, the Terrebone and Lafourche parish areas are creepy enough without this story.
 
C

Chibibar

Wow. If they do turn in the bones, do they get compensated for their home? or just have to move?
 
David

David

Chibibar said:
Wow. If they do turn in the bones, do they get compensated for their home? or just have to move?
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I *think* they'd have to be payed the market value of the property, as it would probably count as an eminent domain issue. But I'm no lawyer.

Also, I'm not sure the market value of a house with piles of human bones would be particularly high.
 
H

Heavan

I once convinced a friend in Grade 3 not to drink from the water fountains, because the water was being piped in from a source that was located over top of an ancient Native American burial ground.
 
R

rabbitgod

I'm not so sure they'd have to move.

I asked my wife who is an archaeologist and she doesn't think so. She's going to ask their repatriation expert so I'll keep you updated.

Barring any state laws I don't think they'd have to move. Any burial that would have been disturbed during the construction of the house were already disturbed so there is nothing in the immediate location. Anything underneath it is perfectly safe sitting underneath the house. Now if there are burials around the house they would need to be removed, but that doesn't necessarily mean the owner needs to move. Also the native group whose heritage dates to these people may not want the burial disturbed. Some groups only want burials repatriated when they are at risk of damage.

In the end this all depends on what investigators/researchers discover.

In my experience though, it's rarely Indians, people want it to be Indians so that's what they say. A few years ago here in my city we had this guy find a skull underneath his mailbox, everybody kept saying that it was an Indian burial ground, but in the end it wasn't. I worked on a site once where we found a body face down in a native house. Again, people wanted it to be an Indian, but it was definitely a white guy and probably just a cowboy.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

If that house was built after the act that made it illegal to dig up Caddo Indian Mounds, or any other for that matter, they would likely have to rebury the bones and restore the mound. It is a Federal Offense to keep those bones.
 
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