Police probe after 'human bones in black bag' dug up by builders near cemetery at South Yorkshire church
Police have launched an investigation after builders working near a Doncaster cemetery dug up a plastic bag containing 'human bones.'
Officers cordoned off a 50 metre area on Monday (October 6) outside St Wilfrid's Parish Church, off Church Lane, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, when two builders discovered what appeared to be human remains.
The workers were clearing a top level of overgrowth with a digger so they could install a wooden fence when they uncovered a black plastic bag containing a 'dismembered body'.
One worker - who does not want to be named - has told of his horror at the gruesome discovery.
He said: "We were removing a top layer of grass and soil next to a four-foot stone wall so we could drive in some fence posts about a metre behind it.
"The area we were digging was about three metres from the closest grave.
"We must have removed one or two feet worth of overgrowth when we came across the black plastic bag.
"It split and all of a sudden bones and a jaw still containing teeth rolled out in front of us.
"We were shocked when we saw the bones as it isn't something you dig up every day.
"It's almost as if someone has chucked the bones behind the wall and put some grass and soil over them to hide it."
The workers have told they informed their company of the discovery who then contacted the police.
They said within a couple of hours police arrived and cordoned off the area before crime scene investigators probed the remains.
Images show a jaw still with its teeth intact inside the plastic bag next to a pile of bones including what he believed to be a skull.
The workers said nothing else was found inside the bag.
A South Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “Around 9.50am on Monday 6 October, we received a call to report that bones had been found near Church Lane.
“A scene is currently in place while searches in the area take place. It is not yet ascertained if the bones are human or animal.
"Enquiries are currently ongoing.”