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Skeletons in your basement.
Imagine this: you live in a house that was built in the 1700s.
It has a dirt floor basement, which is not smooth and level. In fact, it has a number of ridges in it. The house has been added onto over the years, including the section covering this particular part of the basement floor.
Finally, you decide to smooth out the floor in a first step towards developing a more modern concrete floor, which is level and more easily navigable.
As you’re using your metal rake to scrape away some of the ridges to smooth the dirt into a level layer, your rake hits something. You scrape a little bit harder and pick around the obstruction, and finally dislodge what appears to be some sort of bone. You dig a little bit more, and you find another bone, and then another.
You put down your rake and wonder what you should do. You’re not an expert. Maybe these are animal bones. Or, maybe they’re human bones. Maybe you have just uncovered a crime scene. In any event, the bones are in your basement.
At this point, you call the police just to be on the safe side. After all, in a worst-case scenario you may have stumbled upon a murder case. The police arrive, do some initial testing, and then they start making some phone calls.
The good news is: you’re not under arrest, at least not yet.
They have called the Medical Examiner’s office. When they arrive, they conduct a few more tests. Then, some more phone calls. This time, it’s to the State Archeologist’s office. What they tell you is: these bones definitely belonged to a human. They are from an era where it would have been impossible for you to be involved with the person’s demise – so you are not a suspect in their death.
As crazy as all of this is, the most unsettling part is yet to come. It’ll be a few days before the State Archeologist is able to arrive with his team. At that point, though, your basement becomes the scene of an archeological dig. As the team does its work, they uncover a second skeleton, and then a third. Finally, a fourth skeleton is uncovered – and you are now living with the realization that a mass grave sits underneath a wing of your house.
This very real story occurred in western Connecticut in the not so distant past. Who were the people who were buried in this grave? Who had killed them?
Click this link to hear the story on the podcast Amazing Tales from Off and On Connecticut’s Beaten Path, with your host Mike Allen:
"Listeners can now tune in to WICC Radio (600 AM and 95.9 FM) every Saturday at 5:00 pm to hear all about the Amazing Tales from Off and On Connecticut's Beaten Path."
