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A Grave Discovery As Joiner Digs Up 300-Year-Old Bones

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 August 2005, 15:00 CDT

A 300-YEAR-OLD murder mystery has been unearthed after an amateur archaeologist stumbled across human bones on a construction site.

The remains were discovered on the site of the new Queen Margaret University campus in Craighall, Musselburgh.

And it is now believed the bones are the remains of a female murder victim, as one of them appears to have been severed by a knife or another sharp instrument.

But although police were informed of the find, they are not launching an investigation because the remains have lain in the ground for almost 300 years.

The bones were sent to top forensic pathologist Anthony Busuttil, who has worked on high-profile cases including the Jodi Jones murder, for examination.

Archaeologists have now been called in to try to solve the mystery of the bones.

The chilling discovery was made by 32-year-old joiner Larney Cavanagh.

He said he found a variety of bones and knew immediately they were human.

He said: "I have always been into archaeology - it's my hobby. I was walking past the site early on Friday when I decided to have a little look.

"There is excavation work going on at the site just now. I rummaged around in the earth and scraped some soil away and that's when I came across the bones.

"I found part of a skull, an ankle bone, ribs and finger bones. I recognised them to be human remains - they were too long to be animal bones. One of them looked as though it had been cut with something."

Professor Busuttil said the remains of a "mature woman" consisted of part of her ribs, elbow, cranium and thumbs, and said the condition of one of the bones led him to suspect she may have been the victim of murder.

Although mystery surrounds the identity of the woman and how she met her death, the 18th century was a turbulent time for the Lothians.

Bridget Simpson, archaeologist for East Lothian Council, said there could be more remains buried at the site.

The large numbers of archaeological remains in this area, particularly prehistoric and Roman remains, suggest that other archaeological remains may be identified.

"The recent burial findings add weight to that and additionally indicate that it is possible that other burial remains may exist. If this is the case they will be carefully excavated and examined by the archaeologists."

The area, and in particular East Lothian, was the scene of a number of key bloody events during the Jacobite uprising.

During the 1745 rising, Bonnie Prince Charlie marched through part of Musselburgh on his way to the battle of Prestonpans.

Again, on his way to England, Charles led his army through Musselburgh.

From 1792 to near the end of the continental war, Musselburgh was the site of military wooden barracks accommodating more than 2000 men of the militia and volunteer cavalry.

Detective Sergeant Brian Henry said police had no intention of investigating the find. The remains are too old for any murder investigation to take place, even if forensics experts were to uncover evidence of foul play.

DS Henry said: "We sent the bones to the pathologist and he confirmed that the bones were 200-300 years old."

Source: Evening News; Edinburgh (UK)

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