Police officers investigating a report of mysterious voices coming from a garage in southwest Ohio ended up finding a box filled with human bones that are more than a century old.
The discovery occurred last week after a resident reported hearing juvenile voices coming from a detached garage in Mt. Healthy, just north of Cincinnati. The resident went inside the garage, saw a box of bones and called police.
When two officers investigated, they didn't find any people in the garage -- but they did return with a box filled to the brim with human bones.
"I got to tell you, it's one of the more bizarre cases in my 40 plus year history that we ever stumbled across," Mt. Healthy Police Chief Vince Demasi told WLWT.
Police announced Friday that the bones belong to a group known as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, which was founded in 1819 and had a lodge in the town. The bones were "relics" that the group used in "rituals," police said.
"The garage owner purchased a building in Mt. Healthy where the group met," police said in a Facebook post. "The group has long since moved from our area and when the new building owner cleaned the building, he stored material contained therein, including the box with human remains, in the garage he purchased here in Mt. Healthy."
Investigators said they have no reason to believe the remains found were from a recent homicide.
"My understanding is back in the late 1800s, early 1900s, that it was not unusual for unclaimed cadavers to be able to be purchased for various uses," Demasi added.
How the bones went undetected in someone's garage for so many years is anyone's guess.
The Hamilton County Coroner's Office is examining the remains for possible identification.
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