Human bones were uncovered in downtown Rico on Sunday, reports the Dolores County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
No foul play is suspected, said Sheriff Jerry Martin, but the case is being investigated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt appears they are from the early 20th century, probably a miner,\u201d Martin said. \u201cThe coroner was on site, and the bones were sent off to the state archaeological department for identification.\u201d<\/p>\n
A piece of a foot and an arm bone were uncovered behind the Rico Mercantile by shop owner Cody Causey. He was digging a hole for a septic tank when the bones, a squared-off flat stone, an old hammer, and pine planks, possibly from a casket, were discovered two feet down. He stopped and called the sheriff.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has been very cooperative, and digging has ceased. We secured the scene until we can positively rule out foul play,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n
The mercantile dates to 1871, the heyday of mining in the area. Back then, the town had a mortuary, and thousands of residents.<\/p>\n
Once a forensic investigation is completed, and foul play is ruled out, the body will likely be exhumed and reburied in the Rico Cemetery, Martin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not a regular thing to dig up a body. We will do the right thing and use dignity and respect as we proceed with a reburial,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A video about the discovery can be viewed on the Dove Creek Press Facebook page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
likely from mining days<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6363],"tags":[188,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-119270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ds-news","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119270"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=119270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}