Human Skull Found At Site Of New School

I have worked for this school system as maintenance supervisor for almost 33 years. I wasn't at the site when this was found but was called there shortly after the skull was uncovered.

Human skull found at site of new school
Jefferson County Sheriff's Department is investigating

By Naomi Smoot Journal staff writer
POSTED: July 2, 2009
"Human skull found at site of new school"

CHARLES TOWN Workers unearthed a human skull today while doing site excavation work for a new elementary school that is planned for construction off Job Corps Road.

Jefferson County Sheriff Bobby Shirley said police were called to the scene at approximately 11:45 a.m., after an excavation crew found what appeared to be human remains while they were working in an area where a drainage pipe was being installed.

"The skull surfaced, a human skull," Shirley said.

The decomposed skull was found roughly 35 feet from the roadway. Shirley said it appeared to be mostly intact and still contained teeth that police hoped to use to obtain DNA.

Officials were planning to consult missing persons' lists, both locally and nationally, to determine who the skull might belong to, and Shirley said information from the local community is welcomed.

Shirley said it was too early to determine whether the skull had been placed there as the result of foul play, or whether the body simply had been buried on the property years ago.

As of this afternoon, an anthropologist had been called to the scene to help determine the age and gender of the person to whom the skull belongs, along with other information. Police planned to search the area to determine whether additional remains were in the area.

Until recently, the parcel of land where the skull was found had been a vacant field, Shirley said.

Officials with the Jefferson County Schools recently held a ground-breaking at the site to celebrate the building - which has not yet been named - that is planned for construction there. Susan Wall, superintendent of Jefferson County Schools, said the district had an archeological survey done on the site last fall. Nothing was revealed at that time, she said.