PALM COAST, Fla. — The video attached to this story is from a previous, related report.
Police have announced that the excavation of human remains found under a construction site in Palm Coast on July 19 has come to an end.
Crews including the renowned University of South Florida Anthropologist team, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's CSI Unit and the Flagler County Sheriff's Office were able to uncover 90% of the skeleton buried there, FSCO said.
FSCO has determined that there is no further excavation needed.
The skeleton has now been turned over to the Medical Examiner.
“Our team and partners did an outstanding job in a very difficult environment,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “Finding almost the entire skeleton will allow the medical examiner to use DNA or dental records to identify this person and hopefully the cause of death. I would like to thank our partners including Dr. Erin Kimmerle and her team from USF, the Medical Examiner’s Office, FDLE’s CSI, PCFD and Flagler County General Services for their assistance and collective herculean efforts during this excavation. I would also like to thank the developer for his patience, understanding and support, which delayed his project while we conducted this investigation."
The remains were discovered 11 days ago by construction crews during the building of a subdivision called Toscana off New Kings Road.
A construction worker called FSCO's non-emergency line, saying he found a human femur.
"We do underground and roadwork, and we're building a new subdivision out off of Old Kings Road on a subdivision called Tuscana," the caller said. "I was just walking on our one of our excavations, we just previously installed sewer last. What looks to me... I looked it up online... I've been looking at it... looks like a human femur bone. I got just a bone out here. I just felt like I should report it and you guys can take it."
The team from USF who assisted in excavating the human remains at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys was enlisted to help on Tuesday and completed the job by Saturday.