UPDATE: 'Non-Human Remains' Found on Middlebury Yard Monday

Update: 4 p.m. Aug. 19
A Middlebury family woke up to an odd sight in front of their home Monday morning: a large, old bone resting on their lawn where no bones should be.

Middlebury resident Laura Earley said her daughter saw the 11-12 inch bone on the lawn Monday morning, prompting the family to call the police to investigate.


Police arrived and examined the bone, which was later identified as “non-human remains” by the state Medical Examiner’s Office. (See original story below.)

Earley said the bone was bare and obviously old. There were no dug-up areas around where it was found and their lawn is not usually a wash-out area after storms, she added.

The bone could have come from a deer or livestock, such as goats, sheep or cows, according to state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Wildlife Biologist Paul Rego, as their leg bones are similar in size to a human leg.

Earley said she did not get any photos of the bone before police took it away.

Original Story:

1 p.m. Aug. 19

Middlebury police received a call Monday morning about a large leg bone found on a front lawn on Christian Road. On arrival, officers found a large femur bone with the ball joint intact.

After examining it briefly to determine if it was human, officers decided it was “too close to call,” and it was sent to the state Medical Examiner’s Office in Farmington, acting Middlebury Police Chief Richard Wildman said Monday.

Police receive a few calls a year about bones being discovered, Wildman said, and, “In about 90 percent of these cases it can be predetermined to be a animal bone. This one was a little too close to call.”

Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Ira Kanfer examined the bone and determined it to be “non-human remains.”

When asked, a representative reached at the Medical Examiners Office declined to specify what animal the bone came from or whether it was officially identified, only confirming that it was “non-human remains.”

The representative said the office disposed of the bone Monday afternoon and that no further information was being released.