Skeletal remains found near NYC church at site of former cemetery

Construction workers renovating a Manhattan garden near a church on Thursday unearthed skeletal remains at a former centuries-old cemetery, according to authorities and sources.The hardhats stumbled upon the bones while excavating a garden area near St.John’s Lutheran Church on Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue in the West Village around 11 a.m., according to the NYPD and law enforcement sources.Police arrived and found the skeletal remains — including a spinal cord and half a skull — under a layer of brick five feet below the ground, cops and the Daily News reported.

The garden sits on the site of a former cemetery from the mid-1800’s, and investigators are probing whether the bones were left behind from a burial plot, law enforcement sources said.The Office of the Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death, police added....