Shocking discovery of ancient bones turns couples kitchen renovation into crime scene

Ancient human remains that turned a couple’s home renovation into a crime investigation have finally been laid to rest — with the homeowner recently speaking out about the ordeal.Ross Sledger, 49, was at work in spring 2019 when a builder working on a kitchen addition at his home unearthed what appeared to be human bones, news agency SWNS reported.The remains were formally re-interred this August during a ceremony at a church near Sledger’s home in Wye, Kent, in southeastern England.Sledger said he initially thought little of the discovery, assuming the bones belonged to a farm animal or pet, SWNS reported. “[The builder] said, ‘I’ve found some bones,’ and I said, ‘Great,’ thinking it was farming or pets,” Sledger said.Sledger said he was stunned to learn the remains could be human.“As you can imagine, a lot of language came out of my mouth.I was thinking, ‘You must be joking, this is a wind-up,’ but he said, ‘I’m deadly serious,'” Sledger recalled. The bones, later determined to be Anglo-Saxon remains roughly 1,000 years old, caused a stir — and a police investigation.Around 10 officers went to the home to sift through the backyard, with investigators eventually finding remains of a second body.In all, the grisly discovery included a femur, two skulls, ribs, part of a pelvis and fragments of a humerus and finger bones.“They thought it was a crime scene,” Sledger said.

“They had to have an officer overnight, and every half hour he had to get out of his car.”“That set off the neighbor’s floodlights, which set off my dog barking.So as you can imagine, I didn’t get much sleep that night,” he added, as SWNS noted.About 48 hours after the initial discovery, specialists confirmed the remains were ancient and not related to a modern-day crime.But the discoveries didn’t end there. Sledger later uncovered what he described as “knuckles and fingers” while installing artificial grass in his backyard — which caused ...