Construction workers uncovered part of a skeleton while excavating a building site for a new home on Blythes Ferry Road April 8 and county investigators are trying to figure out whose remains they are.

A bulldozer operator working for Trey Hinds Construction was cutting away an embankment when he uncovered the head and torso of a human skeleton on property owned by Jean Claude Auguste near Riversound subdivision. Auguste owns about 30 acres and is building a new home on the property.

The construction crew stopped digging as soon as they spotted the skeleton and notified the Rhea County Sheriff's Department.

Detective Mike Owenby examined the site and contacted District Attorney General Mike Taylor and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Agent David Emiren.

"We looked at it, and our first impression was that it was real old," Owenby said Friday.
Owenby contacted the Forensic Pathology Center at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, but because it was the day before Good Friday, the center was unable to dispatch a team to examine the site and collect evidence.
Owenby and Emiren then completed uncovering the remains, photographed them in place and then placed them in plastic evidence bags. They also collected soil samples. Owenby then took all the evidence to the Forensic Pathology Center on Tuesday.

"The skeleton is from a fairly small person, a small adult," Owenby said. "It could be an old Indian grave, an old Confederate grave, an old family burial plot, it could be a more recent missing person...there are so many possibilities."

Owenby said he is waiting for the results of age testing and analysis from the Forensic Pathology Center. Since the pelvic bone and the legs of the skeleton are missing, he said it may be difficult to determine the sex of the individual.

John Carpenter can be reached at jcarpenter@xtn.net.