Bones Found Under Porch Are Probably Very Old

CRISFIELD -- City police are continuing their investigation into a macabre discovery under an old house this week.

Workers who were tearing a porch off a house on Pine Street found human bones lying in a ditch underneath it.

"They called me all panicky," said Noah Bradshaw, the city inspector, who went over to the house, then quickly called in the Crisfield Police Department.

After the scene was processed by police, the skeletal remains were recovered and another portion of the area was dug to recover additional bones.

The remains consisted only of various leg bones and joints. No other parts of the body, such as a skull, were found at the site, police said.

The State Medical Examiner's Office identified the bones as human remains, and will take them to their Baltimore office for further analysis.

The house where the skeletal remains were recovered is 100 years old and has been in the same family for a long time, Bradshaw said. The owner, Sarah Wise, lives out of state and the house is currently vacant.

Bradshaw said the bones could pre-date the house.

"They're petrified, they're so old." he said.

Although there is an open missing persons case in Crisfield, police said they so far do not suspect the remains to be those of Gordon Nelson Sr., who disappeared in October 2007.

"We don't know anything yet," Lt. Stanley Harmon said. "We're just trying to get the bones identified."

Police consider Nelson's disappearance to be suspicious.

Last year, Crisfield police excavated a property on Canal Drive outside city limits where Nelson once lived. Although a trained cadaver dog hit on a spot in the yard, no remains were found.

Nelson, who was living inside city limits at the time of his disappearance, was last seen at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post.

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