Fallen tree on New Haven Green unearths human skeleton


Published: Wednesday, October 31, 2012

NEW HAVEN – Talk about an eerie Halloween
story. Hurricane turned Superstorm Sandy toppled a majestic old oak on
the Upper Green and intertwined in the dirt and roots was a human skeleton.

Police were called, as was the state medical examiner.

But there was no horror story to be told.

The
very old bones likely are centuries old dating back to when the Green
was used as a cemetery during colonial times until the Grove Street
cemetery was chartered in 1797. There remain an estimated 5,000 people
buried under the Green.

The tree toppled sometime during the
evening on Monday during high winds from the hurricane. On Tuesday, a
passerby noticed something unusual. It looked like human bones. She
contacted police.

By Tuesday afternoon, police were there in number and had contacted the medical examiner.

Finding human bones isn’t that uncommon in the city but it often does draw a crowd.

Last year, workers discovered several skeletal remains while
excavating for an addition at Yale-New Haven Hospital on York Street.
Tony Griego, a retired police sergeant, security guard at Y-NH and local
historian, said the site where the bones were found is the location of
an old cemetery used by the city’s first Catholic church.